Additive Days in Sofia
As we have already informed you, our team, in collaboration with Blackout Label, will be part of Additive Days in Sofia. Additive Days aims to create a propitious occasion for a meeting between manufacturers, distributors, consumers, designers and technology fans from Southeastern Europe. The conference and complementing workshops are a great place for attendees to share ideas and know-how, and to lay the grounds for meaningful international collaborations.
We are going to exhibit a collection of jewellery made of recycled plastic, consisting of 8 pieces with the name “PAIN ENDORSEMENT”. The purpose of the participation is to show how, with the help of technology and art, we can successfully reduce the use of such important natural resources and improve the state of the environment.
Let us tell you now what the founder of Blackout Label Plamena shared with us about her creations…
Hello, Plami! Here we are, meeting again and joining forces in the fight against climate change. How did you learn about Additive Days and what made you participate?
I have learned about the event through the media and the team of EYW! This collaboration has inspired me to think bold and create using unconventional techniques, namely 3D printing, combining with an industrial macrame. A very innovative way of working!
Is it really interesting to tell us about how did you come up with PAIN ENDORSEMENT? It seems to us that you have been deeply involved in the problem of climate change and human negative consequences on our planet…
It happened after my own personal experience, an emotional drama that provoked me to face some rather unresolved up to this moment cases and questions. I figured to what extent a pain can reveal deeper levels of our soul… To a great extent, the stages in which the collection passes, helped me to open my mind and get away with everything that was unnecessary in my life, to cope with the trauma. I thought that Earth is also a living organism, and it is dealing every day with consequences that come out from the humans.
Can we say that PAIN ENDORSEMENT appears as an evolution of your installation for Webit 2018?
To a certain extent, the collection is as the”After Wedding” phase, the stage where we remove the veil of illusions, clichés and masks and we see things and people with their real faces!
The installation for Webit 2018 was associated with the fusion of a male and a female beginning, and this collection is related to what types of injuries occur in this collision, what is their footprint on the Earth and how we can handle this. So the answer is: Yes! Even though it is unconscious, this is a continuation of our previous collaboration.
What does PAIN ENDORSEMENT mean?
As I mentioned above, the collection reveals the pain. We reach the most painful lower layer of a trauma. What is the reason and how can we deal with it? In human psychology, this stage is sterilized with pathological conditions and diseases of the soul in which we lose our sole or some parts of us die!
We know you аре using materials that are quite often recycled to make your accessories. Is this a challenge for you – this clash with 3D modelling and printing?
Absolutely Yes! and I’m very excited about the end result of the collection!
What are the most unusual/extravagant and bizarre accessories you have created in your career as an artist-designer?
So many things have changed with the brand in the last one year… it’s a bit difficult to define just one or two things. Definitely, the top 5 are: a magazine basket, a curtain, a macaroni panel, a man tie for a prom, and a wedding ring. Thanks to all customers who have trusted me;)
How do you see in the future the interference of technology in human life and in the production of clothes and accessories?
As we convinced ourselves, we are nowhere for the technology without any success! The progress is everywhere in our day to day life. Unfortunately, technology can be sometimes not very supportive and with positive impact over nature, but I hope in the coming years this might change;)
As a good end to our conversation, please share with us your tricks for a more conscious and sustainable way of life.
1) very small or no at all consumption of animal and processed food and products
2) using reusable products in everyday life
3) zero waste (still difficult but keep trying)
What are we going to surprise you with during Additive Days in Sofia?
Plamena Vladimirova from Blackout Label has once again unleashed its imagination and, as always, will present something very original and different. The concept carries her style of crafting but is interwoven with the mission of Empty Your Wardrobe – living a sustainable life. The idea of PAIN ENDORSEMENT comes from the pain every one of us has, the pain in nature, and above all, in Mother Earth. How over-consumption and abusive behaviour of humans has ultimate consequences in an organism such as EARTH? PAIN ENDORSEMENT is the door and the stages of this “trauma” and its destruction or rebirth.
If you are all curious about what is going to happen, come and see the whole collection at the festival, as well as meet Plamena and our team just in a few days!