VALSIIEQ TRIPTYCH

Art is the way of people to tackle the wonders around them. Is the way to tame the bearers of the powers, whether they be the bison, or the sun and the thunderstorms, or the personified gods, or the significant others, or the overwhelming sentiments. Art is the means to externalize, and thus to mitigate, the awe, the fear, the desperation and the helplessness. At the same time, art is the means to capture the beauty, to express admiration, to create harmony. Art is the universal ubiquitous, abstract language of all people communicate all that is larger than life, all that surpasses the dimensions of any person.

Knowledge is not inherited, neither wisdom. Each generation has to explore the world from the beginning, understand the laws, adapt, and, based on them create better conditions for themselves and the next generations. Each generation can learn the findings of the past ones and benefit from what they have discovered and what they have created. Sometimes, this evolutionary spiral is interrupted violently. Natural catastrophes, war, retrograde regimes overturn and destroy the accomplishments of past effort. People, then, have to start all over again. Sometimes, voluntarily or not, people journey to discover new lands. The Earth is not anymore the limit for such endeavors. Art is the universal and ubiquitous language that they use to express their most intimate feelings during this journey.

The VALSIIEQ triptych draws its inspiration from the archetypal sculptures of Barbara Hepworth. The first form is dedicated to the primary situation when people simply react to the environment and explore it in order to be able to adapt. The central artifact which is symbolizing the outburst of creativity when the man feels secure enough to start building her own environment. The third is characterized by the self-confidence gained during the successful trip gained by overcoming the obstacles encountered during the trip the man has is aware of her abilities and limitations has gained wisdom regarding the truths of life and feels content appreciating the results of her effort.

Much of the material used in Valsiieq comes from originals boats and life-vests used by refugees to reach the coast of Chios after fleeing their embattled former motherland. The loath odyssey of these people, who chose to risk their lives seeking refuge in a new environment, alien to them, is the beginning of their odyssey. They are to develop new understanding, new skills, expand their adaptability to integrate into the social texture of their new countries. As countless times before them in history, they will finally succeed to settle in a new place and start progressing again.

The human adventure continues. As in dreams, where blend faces, places and feelings from diverse moments and spaces, VALSIIEQ brings extracts from disparate origins together and joins them in order to cover the human body of the present. These syntheses represent the unique human references that each one acquires throughout their life and shape their character and aspirations. 3D printed parts come together with parts from the boats and laser-cut new material, engraved with the imprint of old master’s paintings.

People need a safe and serene place, a shelter from the uproar of the everyday struggle for survival. A familiar space, saturated with the energy of the loved ones, a nest. When space becomes narrow, they seek new homes. And when the violent outbreaks of history force them, then again they seek new homes. The motives vary, but the flow of things is the same. The propensity and destiny of people as such is the same: to overcome borders, to defeat dangers, to get farther. Into unknown waters, new countries, unknown worlds, the cosmos. The journey, the boat, and a life vest are their extension. Memories are their only luggage. Refugees and immigrants carry their memories with them. Splinters and fragments of their previous lives, corrupted by time and the mind’s processes. Our memories make up our identity.

HERSE, in cooperation with LOVEST & ASTROLAB, present the VALSIIEQ triptych at the International Fashion Design Competition, weaving together emotion and equations, personal & collective experiences, technology and inspiration, necessity and aesthetics. In their work, symbols and the realism fuse, to surround the bearer of the futuristic clothes with the powers of dreaming and of human will.