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The migrant style, while finding personal and individual declinations each time, has constants capable of telling the story of the world, of its commercial exchanges, of colonial and media powers, of its myths.
B&W -Black & White Lab. Florence
- ABITO - (dress - to live)
The B&W Laboratory is an appointment of artistic investigation on the Migrant Style. A style that, despite personal and individual variations, looks unique with certain fixed elements that tell us much about the history of the world, of trade, of colonial and media power, and its myths.
It is an educational format, an opportunity for in-depth study on issues related to intercultural fashion and its relationship with a transcultural identity and a networking occasion between tailoring and migrant fashion realities.
- ABITO - (dress - to live)
The second edition of the format B&W Lab. curated by Nation25 with Fum Studio and the artistic direction of Caterina Pecchioli took place at MAD Murate Art District of Florence from the 1st to 17th June 2022, with the support of the Fondo Otto per Mille della Chiesa Valdese.
ABITO: In Aristotelian philosophy (as translation of the Greek ἕξις), disposition to be or to act in a certain way; it differs from habit because it involves active engagement.
This year B&W Lab. theme is simultaneously an indicative verb present: Live (from the verb to Live) and a noun: Dress. It is precisely from this syncretism of meaning of the term that the investigation of the interdisciplinary laboratory developed.
The laboratory has focused on dress as a manifestation of oneself. It was a participatory and intercultural study with the participation of Italian and foreigner students, asylum seekers and refugees of different origins, to investigate the complex relationship between clothing, living and identity.
We observed how the choices on the daily way of dressing of the participants, and the territorial, social and cultural influences, can highlight a greater awareness of cosmopolitan and intercultural identities.
Words: The meanings of words related to clothing practices were analyzed in the different languages of the participants - from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gambia, Georgia, Italy, Mali, Pakistan, Syria - to understand how they are communication vehicles capable of expanding the perspective on the link between dressing and living, tradition and multiple and extraterritorial cultural influences.
Moodboard: Were made by the participants, with the didactic involvement of FUM studio in the person of Giulia Ceragioli, to visualize how the way of dressing is also a moving path linked to identity, social and territorial transformation .
Calendar / Magazine: Starting from the photos on the social networks and the clothes of the participants, some representative outfits of participants street style were selected to create a calendar-magazine that collects the traces of this analysis path. The photo shooting sees the continuation of the collaboration with the photographer Francesco de Luca (Photographer) and styling by fashion designers Victor Abbey-Hart and Nosakhare Ekhator, decided in both outfits and poses with the collaboration of the participants, with whom we analyzed during the workshop stereotypes and exotizations linked to the countries of origin, in order to make a conscious and breaking choice.
Foto: Francesco De Luca
The participatory workshop involved about twenty boys and girls of eight different nationalities. Asylum seekers and refugees from the Scuola In Altre Parole, asylum seekers guests of Caritas, Italian and foreign students of the Design Methodology course of the Italian Academy - Art, Fashion and Design of Florence.
B&W-Lab. and AtWork by the Moleskine Foundation
Also this edition saw the collaboration with Moleskine Foundation which invites participants to question themselves on this year theme of their educational format AtWork: “What Comes First?”.
It was an opportunity for the participants to create a collective notebook that collects the visual and textual reflections born in bringing this question in relation to the theme of the B&W Lab: ABITO. What comes first in what you try to show to others and to yourself starting from the simple and everyday choice of what you wear? Is there a hierarchy in the syncretism of cultures present in the dress of young people who live between different cultures? What comes first with respect to individual choices, cultural vision and belonging (dress vs living) and therefore, with respect to the Aristotelian definition of "Abitare" the question is: what is the priority that is given in this choice of dress which is not passive but it involves active engagement.?
The collective Moleskine has a heart impressed on the front of the cover and a brain on the back, while in the center, the aluminum paper, reflects the image of the beholder for a reflection on oneself and on what comes first between feeling and thinking. The rest of the pages are like a collective moodboard made up of personal impressions, memories, drawings and photos inspired by the connection between clothing, life and identity.
Credits:
The B&W lab. Florence was organized by Nation25 and FUM Studio, with the artistic direction of Caterina Pecchioli
a project by B&W-Black&White, The Migrant Trend APS
In collaboration with: Africa e Mediterraneo, Accademia Italiana, Coop Il Girasole, MAD Murate Art District, Moleskine Foundation, Murate Idea Park, Progetto Agata Smeralda Onlus, Scuola In Altre Parole.
Project supported with the Otto per Mille Funds of the Chiesa Valdese.
With the participation of: Muhammad Adnan, Mohammed Ahsan, Raza Haris Ali, Simone Biagioli, Ibrahima Cissey, Fatty Ebrima, Umar Muhammad Farooq, Viola Grassi, Dilawar Hussain, Natia Maglakelidze, Maryam Mehrzad, Arianna Monaca, Howlader Kamran, L Sagar Nazir Roshangar, Samar Saab, Afreedi Shahid, Viola Soldani, Diaki Toure.
Thanks to: Victor RB Abbey-Hart, Moussa Baraji, Giulia Ceragioli, Francesca Chiarini, Francesco de Luca, Nosakhare Ekhator, Sandra Federici, Silvia Galvagni, Elena Ianeselli, Chiara Fontanella, Valentina Gensini, Tania Gianesin, Justin Randolph Thompson, Camilla Salvi, Giulia Pec Lenzi.
Photographs Project Room and Calendar: Francesco De Luca (Commessofotografo)
Video shooting and editing: Giulia Pec Lenzi
