“People say beauty is symmetry. That numbers define aesthetics. Beauty is not a mathematical problem. And if it was – what would be the solution? An army of lookalikes? The desire to belong leads to uniformity. To be an average beauty means living a contradiction.”

“Once you come close” is the new short film – and last project – born from the collaboration between photographer/videomaker Jonas Lindström and Costume National.

Starring a boy and set in the surroundings of a big, hectic city, Lindström’s film is a journey through the concept of one’s perception of him/herself and the world.

A voice-over accompanies the protagonist, speaking an intimate poetic monologue, unclear if it is revealing the boy’s own emotions or just citing someone else’s.

Sound and surrounding and noise play along with the boy, interacting with his moves and thoughts on an abstract, somehow dreamlike level.

This work comes as the final stage of Lindström’s creative project, as a sum and evolution of the previous photographic contributes, where, through the lenses of his camera, he looked into the relationship between fashion, beauty and the idea of perfection.

words by Mareike Nieberding

model Frankie Wade @ Select Models London

His creative project lingers on the perception of beauty and its interpretation from different points of view.

Distancing himself from the classical style of a fashion photographer, Lindström adopts an unconventional perspective which portrays the model as a human being in the act of dressing and undressing.

In the photographer’s own words, the significance of these actions reveals “the fragile juxtaposition between a body and the clothes that protect it”.

While playing his music, his girlfriend listens – or maybe he only dreams she’s there to listen – waiting for him to finish his guitar play and preparing to go out with him. But in the end, his first love is his guitar.

A true music video, interpreted by Sam, singer and guitar player of the italian band “The Dragons” and directed by Cesare Cicardini (Oddproduzioni).

Lindström’s work reveals both a photographic sensibility and a graphic, editorial slant that are expressed through two different visual channels: editorial photography and photography used as a documentary tool in the re-interpretation of CoSTUME NATIONAL’s Women’s S/S 2012 collection.

In the first part of his contribution the young artist sets dresses at the centre of urban reality, thus powerful architectural features and the harmonious fabrics of the garments allude to the relationship between tough and tender that is well represented by the volumes and colours of the collection itself.

Jonas Lindström on the CoSTUME NATIONAL project:

“This project grew from the seminal interpretation of these garments’ significance when re-positioned in a new context, to be explored: Milan.

Milan is a city that I have always perceived as a tightly woven composition of tradition and futuristic ideas, especially in view of the current works-in-progress for the Expo.

For me, just as it was for the garments, it was important to explore a city that I had never really seen and that I had always associated with a certain type of image.

The first part of my interpretation of the CoSTUME NATIONAL S/S 2012 collection is therefore focused on observing the relationship that it created between space and urban architecture, which is very different from our perception of a collection in advertising or on the catwalk.”

Artist’s Take on Costume National AW 11/12 Collection

As Sergei Sviatchenko worked his personal interpretation of Costume National’s Fall/Winter collection – he smilingly reminded us that his style “is all about the details“.

Indeed, it is his amazing ability to blend contemporary originality with impeccable classical minimalism that motivated us to invite him as a guest of Conscious.

Indeed, Sergei found his initial inspiration for this project in the world of the Beatles and in particular, in scenes taken from their sojourn in Italy during 1965.

As he often does in his blog Close Up and Private, in this project Sviatchenko mixes two of the three techniques that distinguish him from others: photography and collage (he uses his third medium – that of painting – under the alias of Sergei Nielsen).

The result is a fresh, new vision of the collection that Ennio Capasa described as “a work that impressed me greatly”. ”In Sergei’s work I see many of Costume National’s characteristics: simplicity, attention to detail, pop style and minimalism”.

closeupandprivate.com

sviatchenko.dk