Mareunrol: Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops at the garden of the villa Noailles.

RENÉ HABERMACHER: what was the point of departure for this installation and the inspiration behind it?
ROLANDS PETERKOPS & MARITE MASTINA: When we start to work on a new collection, we always make the designs first to fit on miniature mannequins. And each time we both have discussed the idea of beautiful dolls as models so we could our ideas of garments to shoot as small style photos and to show them as the newest collection. That is why this idea came naturally.

The advantage of the small scale is that we have the freedom of implement anything, all our ideas without leaving out any of those costing an absolute fortune to make. Visual inspiration came in recent years moving from one apartment to another. That’s why our project is called TENANTS. As any of our works, this work also reflects our experience.

The inspiration for the installation came from artists’ constant moving from one apartment to another, from one neighbors to others, from one room to next and due to moving to new environment always makes you get used to new mystical noises, strange objects, loud or too quiet neighbors and other peculiarities connected with the apartment. But of course, with time you get used to all that. However, that all provoked thinking of how space influences those living in it and vice versa, and whether all these things in one way or another influence people and whether one imperceptibly starts to change, and whether this oddity is just in one’s mind, not reality. This is how emerged the idea for the installation with people/ tenants who dwell in their apartments and become as one with it. All their belongings are like a huge enormous shell/ attire which tell all their peculiarities, interests, specific hobbies and many other things.

These stories are made as small installations which show short sketches from character’s daily life. They communicate through costumes, scenography, sound and light. It is important that not only costumes and puppets are made for the installation, but also environment/ scenography, where they can express themselves and show the intended story, by forming a figurative composition which is combined with a surreal fantasy, mystique and a pinch of wit.

Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops: Tableau from the exhibition TENANTS.
The dolls character is inspired and modeled after Keith Richards.

Can you explain me the process of planning and making the installations?
First we had a few visions of the project,  then we started working on sketches slowly crystallyzing the characters. At the same time we started looking for people who could make the puppets we had envisaged. It was really important for us to find a puppet master who could make the dolls with movable head and arms. It is really important for our Prague project.

I suppose we just got really excited about it. As we had decided to show our new collection in miniature, we wanted the puppets to have very realistic features (fashion model), with just a slight touch of surreality. The creation process was a collaboration with two puppet masters Kristians Aglonietis and Dita Benina.
At the same time we made all the outfits and made the interior of the boxes. We also invited lights and sound artists. Parallel on the basis of our sketches and instructions in e-mails there was the house construction in Villa Noailles garden. We really appreciate the work of Villa’s team which was excellent.

Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops: Tableau from the exhibition.

Can you estimate how long have you been working on it?
We’ve been working on this idea for more than a year, as we first proposed it to be shown at the Prague Quadrennial in June 2011. This project had taken our minds over to such an extent that we saw we had no other choice but to present something similar in a different way at the Hyères festival.  We started working on the installation for Hyères in January 2011.

It’s evident that your approach is much broader than mere fashion: the film for your collection presented in Hyères, the birds details the following year, now this installation. how would you describe your universe and approach?
We engage in what we find inspiring, interesting and  eye catching at a given moment. At the same time it is important to us to find a way how to tell the story so our created things have the basis and meaning.

What are your references and sources? there is something seemingly dark in your work, if you agree, what fascinates you about that?
I wouldn’t describe our works as dark. They are rather bright coming through the darkness. They are likely to reflect the environment from which we come.

You have made another installation last summer in Riga. Can you tell me more about this story and the idea behind it?
We created the installation EDEN parallel to our last year’s collection of birds EPISODE 1. The idea began with the fact that we liked one old house, the most appropriate word would be ‘the slum’, in which had grown trees and grass. Then there was the offer from the Latvian Contemporary Art Museum to create something especially for the Museum Night. After the project EDEN we had had many other projects, so we are emotionally away from it already.

The installation is about the road leading to the forest/garden of Eden. The object is located in the centre of Riga in old collapsed building block, which is going to be reconstructed in a couple of years for Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art. During many years inside these remains of the building have grown trees, which actually looks like a forest in the house.

Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops: Tableau from the exhibition.

So our idea was to build the object that imitates man’s way back to garden of Eden. The inspiration came from uncountable low-cost hotels of big cities, their features, uncomfortableness, tasteless or tasteful arrangement of rooms.

At the beginning a visitor gets the keys from the hotel owner and walks into the installation through five rooms, which are like small corridors. In perspective they are getting smaller. Each room has its own feature and there is a special light and sound installed in them, the noises, sounds and the voice of opera singer was specially recorded for this project.

While moving forward the rooms are getting smaller and smaller until there is the final room with a small door, which is locked with uncountable keys and it’s impossible to unlock it. Some people get confused when they can’t find their way out. All doors closed automatically and they can be opened only from the other side. The exit is hidden somewhere else – a small secret door in the wall. While looking for the exit a person notices a hole in the ceiling and when one sticks his head out of it, he can look into the forest of Eden, which is lighted up and fitted with the sound.

The object is built very carefully not to touch the nature and to protect visitors from the collapsing building, where the  forest has grown and it gives people the opportunity to get into the middle of the forest by walking through small rooms of the hotel.

What means collaboration to you?
Collaborations is a new experience for us. There are two types of collaboration we usually have. One, where we invite people to help us to set up what we have conceived such as TENANTS or any other of our   projects or collections. Then everything is created by our sketches, drawings and notes as it is important to us to have the work done professionally.

And  then there is another form of collaboration where several people try to negotiate their opinions and visions to create a final result, such as project EDEN, opera or collaboration with the photographers for the pictures of our collections.

Mārīte Mastiņa and Rolands Pēterkops: Tableau from the exhibition.

How was it to win in Hyères and to be back for this project?
That was fantastic, especially for us because we are form relatively remote corner of Europe, where you can’t feel the real taste of the fashion world.

Our victory was a huge honor to receive an assessment form the jury. And it is always fantastic to return to the Villa Noailles. We were really happy about the offer to make a special project for the festival. The Villa Noailles team and the festival will always be remembered by us with good emotions.

You came by car all the way from Riga — tell me more about this adventure.
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France… going by car it is possible to see much more than flying by plane. We like driving cars, we can always speak out and ponder about many things. We left Latvia in our winter boots, coats and scarves, when the nature was still gray but at Hyères there were flowers in blossom. The same flowers blossom here in Latvia only in June.

What is up next?
We create the same story for Prague, about tenants. But this will include a performance with movements and certain plot/story with the beginning and the end.

Where can we buy your collection?
Currently it is possible only in Riga by ordering individually. Somehow so far we haven’t been sufficiently interested in business. But that does not mean we don’t want it. It is coming.

The Stimuleye talked with Sandra about here recent work. The conversation was shortly interrupted by yet another request from the international glitteratti circuit: Sandra is truly knitting to the top!

Sandra Backlund's installation CUPRUM 2010 at the Villa Noailles' pigeonnier. Photography by René Habermacher

RENÉ HABERMACHER: What was the point of departure for this installation and the inspiration behind it?
SANDRA BACKLUND: Everything took off from the position they gave me for my exhibition, the Pigeon House in the north garden of Villa Noailles. I think it’s a very beautiful space, so I wanted to use it as a frame, rather then just a location. Because the house is partly open and the exhibition would run for one month outside, I had to carefully consider what material to work with. Already for my current S/S 2011 collection I had been working with a metal yarn made from 100% copper, so in a way it came natural to me to continue exploring that material. With a history of use that is at least 10 000 years old, copper is an important part of both our history and the future. It’s one of the world’s most useful natural resources, 100% recyclable without any loss of quality and it’s estimated that 80% of the copper ever mined, is still in use today. In a way I feel like the story of copper as a material and the way I try to approach fashion go very well together.

Can you explain me the process of planning, and the making of the dress?
As always, the handicraft techniques and the human body is the main starting point for me. I never sketch, instead I work with a three dimensional collage method where I develop some basic bricks that I multiply and attach to each other in different ways to discover the silhouette. The only thing I decided already from the beginning was that I wanted some kind of link between the signature piece (the paper origami top) of my winning collection from the 22nd edition of the festival in 2007. Because of the different techniques, materials and colours and because of the process, I guess in the end the link is not so obvious, but there is a few things that is still noticeable, like the silhouette and the size gradings for example.

I’ve witnessed you working day and night on this piece – do you have a clue how many hours went into the making?
To be honest, I think that this is the longest piece I have ever worked on. First of all, crochet is always extremely time consuming, especially when it’s layered like this. The copper tape is also very fragile and ones it’s used it, it’s impossible to change, so I had let go of the control and in a way let faith guide me to the end result. If we are talking hours, my estimation is around 500-600 hours.

Pieces of copper yarn in the the making, and Sandra at the exhibition space. Photography by René Habermacher

Your pieces are often very sculptural, with the artisan work involved, i wonder wether you consider to put your work in a different context than fashion?
Of course I have consider this and many times questioned if fashion is really the right context for my work. As you said, my clothes are always quite sculptural and I also use methods when working that is more close to a sculptor’s, then a tailor’s. But somehow I always come back to the human body. I like to consciously dress and undress different parts of the body and I am very fascinated by all the ways highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette with clothes and accessories. For me fashion is also one of the most democratic art forms, something that we are all related to. You don’t have to be a designer or a stylist to use clothes as a creative statement, but people in general could of course be more self-governed when t comes to fashion.

To me it seems difficult to render your unique approach into industrial production. How are your experiences with that?
About two years ago I was introduced to the long tradition of Italian top knitwear and apparel production. The challenge was to add to my collections something inspired by my hand made pieces that could require only a limited amount of manual work. It was of course a big step for me to go from working alone in my studio, inventing pieces while doing them myself by hand, to suddenly be working in a team of experts within a field of fashion that I never before have had the chance to get to know. I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities I saw and even though I will never give up doing my hand knitted signature pieces, these production tests really made me understand that there is ways to develop my collections that I never thought was possible.

What is this festival of Hyères to you? How was it to win – and to be back for this project?
The whole event is really an experience for life when you’re a young designer, all the people you meet and the rush from showing your work in a context like that. I didn’t know about the festival before I met Diane Pernet and she suggested that I should apply. I was crazy happy already when I was selected for the finale and then the wind up… It’s really an important moment in my career so far and to be back again this year and meet everyone was kind of a flash back. When I think about it, I’m still a bit shocked that I was the winner.

What’s up next?
F/W 2011-2012 production, S/S 2012 collection and some up coming exhibitions.

The dress weights over 6kg, made from an archaic material that was the first to be 100% recyclable

Further information on Sandra Backlund: sandrabacklund.com
The Exhibition at the Villa Noailles in Hyeres runs throughout May until the 29th

Pantelis Chandris "180⁰", 2010. Pencil on paper. 15x20cm each

EFI SPYROU: Artist “based in Athens.” What does this means to you?
PANTELIS CHANDRIS: “Based in Athens”, means nothing. You are considered out of the larger map, out of the game.
Those who live and work in Athens live and work in a purely regional locality. Artists who live and work in London, New York, Berlin have a more extended target audience and these are cities where things happen.

What do you do against this reality?
While I am working on my art projects, I make my living as a professor in the Athens School of Fine Arts.

Are you teaching what you are working on?
No. It would be tragic to teach what I am working on.  To work, means trying to find a way to create something. Exploring a personal issue. Besides, the allurement of teaching has to do with the process of dealing with the impasses of others.

With origins from island of Chios – do you feel that your homeland is your “island”?
My island, my place, is what I do. And to the extent that I can do it, I think I do it well. This makes me feel good, gives me confidence and security. I think everyone’s place is the conjunction of different things that give it a sense of safety. This place, shelter, is the starting point for moving ahead.

Do you have your own shelter?
Shelter can be sometimes a trap. You see…all those things we often “manufacture” can create a microcosm in which we feel safe; a certainty which may be fictitious. But this microcosm prevents you from seeing the reality outside of it.

Your last work has to do with dialogue. Tell us more about it.
It’s an introverted, internal dialogue. A monologue.
A personal effort to acknowledge my bipolar nature that organizes me. And to reconcile with my other, alien side.

And what about the outside? Does it scare you?
What matters is how you converse with your own self. The nature of the dialogue determines the outcome. If someone speaks honestly with himself, begins to find the way to speak in sincerity with others.

Do we speak in sincerity?
We no longer care about each other. We live in a society which feeds a superego only through its system. A benign superego cannot converse with the other; obviously not with itself.

We see around us countless ads that relate to communication.
Communication though, does not exist.

Internet communication, telephone communication…an endless list.
We have lost personal and meaningful contact. Once people were saying a few words over a cup of coffee, now they are exchanging short messages with very small costs.

What is the financial situation of an artist today?
Depends on whom we refer to. There are artists who can survive through what they do and others are forced to resort to other sources of income.

Who are they? Are they categorized?
Different areas of creativity. Not categories. Creativity based on the average preferences and creativity based on contemporary problem thinking, and research.

What is the role of the artist?
The role of the artist is to produce work. The artist cannot get the role of a trainer nor to popularize his art.

left: Pantelis Chandris "If and-may be", 2010. Pencil on paper. 182x90cm
right: Pantelis Chandris "Soft chamber", 2009. Stuffed fabric and polyester resin. 280x60x50cm

In Greece of today what is your target audience?
The one that enters a gallery to see my work.

How many people go to a gallery to see contemporary art?
The question is who is prepared to confront a problem. A work of art is a problem to which there must be someone to stand up.

Tell us about the “problem” of your last exhibition.
My last exhibition concerns with the concept of dialogue; everything I have found through the course of my work in recent years.

What differentiates the new from the previous statements?
The reason again is the text, but the plastic response and thus the resulting morphology is quite different.

A new image?
The new always has to be introduced.

There is a tendency of recycling ideas, images. Artists either take advantage of their glorious past or they refer to safe solutions, suggesting something already conquered.
I was never in favor of recycling an image nor interested in the recognition of my work. The work of an artist can operate along a single backbone, which organizes things. There is no need to run on a superficial image that has to do with a consolidated picture of the artist.

My work is experimental… without saying that suggests the original, innovative… what I am waiting for is the result to surprise me first of all.

How the final result comes out? Through the process, research, memory?
What stimulated me all these years was an amalgamation of personal experiences, collective memory, cinema, literature, music. All these with the right filter, the proper process and proper handling in the right time become something. A result should be characterized by integrity, one component flowing through many balances, occasions, beginnings.

What are your expectations for the future?
My new exhibitions to be better than the previous ones.

What does a great Award such as The AICA Price, mean to an artist? Does it provide any help?
A recognition award is a great tool for an artist.

If a project travels easily, becomes part of great Exhibitions, is purchased by collectors ,subsequently the development of the artist is supported.

Do you feel that major events, art prizes, celebrities and glamour have become one?
This happens always. There were always events around which celebrities gather. Something like the pollen that bees harvest.

Do you attend to glamorous events?
Rarely.

And how do you spend your evenings? Someone told me about your talent in cooking.
Laughter …. I cook to please good friends.

I suggest we finish this interview with a recipe for friends…
Laughter … liver with ginger

Pandelis Chandris: "The place of mind", 2010.
Painted polyester resin, iron, projection. 250x280x350 cm