Isagus is a French contemporary multi-media and multi-disciplinary painter, sculptor and eco-fashion designer based in Geneva-Switzerland, who creates various types of unique pieces through unconventional materials used for performances and installations worldwide to explore and comment the human condition in the current over-consumerist and violent word by restoring the aesthetic value to objects that have been discarded.
The idea is to explore the role that clothing plays in human existence since its primal origins to these days. How it defines us according to our geographical location, age, religion, social status, political ideology, ethnicity, etc., as an indicator of societal norms and traditions.
The basic connections between clothing and shines as we protect of our body from the world as well as the sense of belonging to certain organised groups and the contradiction in Roland Barthes words “clothes reveal as much as they hide” are subject of Isagus constant deep observation.
As she analyses the dynamic current social environment of multiple tastes, trends, identity gender, etc. Facing the saying “clothes don’t make the man,” many questions emerge:
How do we perceive certain outfits in certain people and why? What is the limit between fantasy and aberrations? What makes us choose the style of our clothes? Do our choices reflect always our state of mind? What do we want to convey with them? Is the message clearly perceived or biased by our prejudices, trends, societal norms collective? What do we think about uniforms and uniformity, versus eccentricity? How much can organised societies influence citizens by the fashion imposed on them? How much can clothing mark peoples identity in the current world?
The tipping point of this research was Earth Day 2013, when Washington DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities featured her in a trashion performance in Union Station hall, with the collection Extroversions, performing in a public space where people are in the hurry to travel with their luggage. A place least expected to become a Fashion show venue or even an entertainment space. Each dress of this collection had a name, a message, a story to tell.
After a decade of obsessive work, the number of gowns have been developed, enriched and planned to become a fashion continuum. So far they are approximate two hundred… and counting.
She has experimented with photography and performances whether as guerrilla interventions or special guest participations at fashion, anti-fashion and trashion shows (fashion with trash) in various countries. Her work is a free, committed, living art form that questions and provokes, but also gives beauty and poetry as a cure to our increasingly wounded humanity.
IN-PERSON EVENT AT L'ALLIANCE FRANçAISE.
In collabortion with L'Alliance Française people get to meet Isagus Extroversions in a press conference where she talks about creating art in times of crisis, and in particular about her recent art project The Allegory of Ukraine - The Chernobyl Bride
This event will be in English at 2142 Wyoming Avenue NW. and will start at 7:00 PM and will last for about an hour followed by a reception.
The European Union, in partnership with the Hirshhorn, presents, “State of the Arts Night,” a special after-hours evening celebrating the importance of artistic expression in a post-pandemic society. This unique pop-up experience welcomes artists from 9 European Union member states to share their creative and philosophical responses to pressing issues of the post-COVID era. In addition to participating in a series of conversations on topics ranging from climate change to war to gender, artists will present recent work.
Throughout the evening, the Hirshhorn’s outdoor plaza will come alive with interactive performances, music, projection, and augmented reality. Visitors can also experience exhibitions on view throughout the Museum until 10 pm.
This event is presented in cooperation with the Washington, D.C. Embassies of Germany, Estonia, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Finland, and Sweden, as well as the Alliance Française.
A strong response to the Russia-Ukraine invasion, where the bride surges as a sort of Ukrainian Lady Liberty showing her sorrow and strength in front of the devastation of her country where the astonished world contemplates in awe the tragedy and bloodshed. Tears of blood stain her beautiful face, as she holds her beloved flag like a mother holds her wounded son with almost no way to heal him and give him some comfort.
Since February 24th, 2022 this iconic performance has been presented in the main protests for peace around the world in cities like Geneva, Paris, Washington-DC, Bern, Art Basel, The Venice Biennale, Festival d’AvignonOff, etc. as a continuum call for action and reflexion by the observer with the hope to turn carelessness into commitment, indifference into charity, fear into love…
The first scene of this photographic project part of The Chernobyl Bride, developed in Ukraine, “The Last Supper in Chernobyl” took place during a performance at Bereznitska Art Foundation in Kiev (Kyiv Art Week 2019) inside its worn down burned room backgrounds as a remembrance of the dark chaotic radioactive Chernobyl site.
As a powerful allusion to The Seven Sins of Dante Aligheri "Divine Comedy” some verses in original latin and other languages seem to stain the immaculate white background of some photographs of the series, denouncing the human dark side.
Additionally, in her research for women’s rights, Isagus has been also studying marginalised groups worldwide such as the last fading matriarchal society in Estonia’s Islands of Kihnu and Manija, at the Baltic Sea; and the last Sworn Virgins (women permanently impersonating men) of the Albanian Mountains. The project pretends to reinsert these women into society where they were traditionally excluded tending to disappear among this current globalised world.
+33. 644.393563 Europe +1. 202.375.4449 US - worldwide
contact@isagus.org press@isagus.org projects@isagus.org
© Copyright. All rights reserved. All art pieces and performances property of Isagus.org 2022