last tango in brooklyn

today is going to be a somewhat long post

i tend not to have a lot of text on this blog but yesterday i went to see the exhibition on japanese fashion at the barbican

and watched a video by Wim Wenders

and the speech he gave at the beginning i found truly fascinating and wanted to share it with you

here i am wearing my beautifully tailored armani suit

the silhouette of the blazer and cut of the trousers are so stylish

 

 

suit - georgio armani, top - asos, wedges - sonia rykiel for h&m 

 

You live wherever you live,

you do whatever work you do,

you talk however you talk,

you eat whatever you eat,

you wear whatever clothes you wear,

you look at whatever images you see...

you're living however you can.

you are whoever you are.

“Identity” ...

of a person,

of a thing,

of a place.

“Identity”...

The word itself gives me shivers.

It rings of calm, comfort, contentedness.

What is it, identity?

To know where you belong?

To know your self worth?

To know who you are?

How do you recognise identity?

We are creating an image of ourselves,

We are attempting to resemble this image...

Is that what we call identity?

The accord

between the image we have created of ourselves

and... ourselves?

Just who is that, “ourselves”?

We live in the cities.

The cities live in us... time passes.

We move from one city to another,

from on country to another.

We change languages,

we change habits,

we change opinions,

we change clothes,

we change everything.

Everything changes, And fast.

Images above all... change faster and faster and they have been multiplying at a hellish rate ever since the explosion that unleashed the electronic images. They are the images that are now replacing photography.

We have learned to trust the photographic image. Can we trust the electronic image?

With painting everything was simple.

The original was the original, and each copy was a copy – a forgery.

With photography and then film that began to get complicated.

The original was a negative.

Without a print, it did not exist, just the opposite, each copy was the original.

But now with the electronic, and soon the digital, there is no more negative and no more positive.

The very notion of the original is obsolete.

Everything is a copy.

All distinctions have become arbitrary.

No wonder the idea of identity finds itself in such a feeble state.

Identity is out, out of fashion.

Exactly.

Then what is in vogue, if not fashion itself?

By definition, fashion is always in.

Identity and fashion, are the two contradictory?



xoxo