Fashion photography shows an exclusive world that is possible and exceptional. It is about making us believe that we want to live in this world. It makes us want to be part of that world, to be curious about it. To do this, it uses tools such as glamour or cool. Both words can only be roughly translated into English. According to Stephen Gundle, glamour is a basic concept of modernity: it gives power to a person whose appearance impresses others. It goes hand in hand with the birth of modern femininity – although for women, their bodies were the primary means of assertion, as the vast majority were excluded from all other forms of assertion. And the word cool can be translated as cool. The reference to lifestyle, attitude and appearance is also clear here. The history of cool is more related to social class structures, but equally captures the impact of appearance on others. Cool is a characteristic of those who impress others without being aware of it. Detachment is an essential element of cool. Both words are part of the universal vocabulary of the globalised capitalist entertainment industry. They suggest that fashion photography introduces us to worlds that have been ‘invented’ for us by a Western, Western European aesthetic and standard of living.
Over the past decade or so, there has been an interesting swirl of international fashion trends. Since then, the number of fashion critiques related to Eastern European aesthetics has continued to grow, with the international success of the Georgian-born Demna Gvasalia, creative director of the fashion brands Vetements and Balenciaga, being the starting point for the authors. This global spotlight can be a great opportunity for us. The question is, however, to what extent have the comparisons in the international press and the mostly rather vague opinions expressed by the authors actually understood or misunderstood what ‘Eastern European aesthetics’ really means?
In fact, redefining Eastern European glamour and cool is difficult even for people who live and socialise here, even if we have a visceral sense of what it’s all about. Until now, Eastern Europe has been associated in contemporary internet aesthetics with the very opposite of glamour: grittiness, greyness, boredom, exotic enchantment. For the people here, of course, this has always been a real source of inspiration, as have the basic phenomena that can be lined up alongside them: unsearchable honesty, the invention and application of original, DIY solutions, the subtle, specifically Eastern European subversion of the dominant cultural industries. For the fashion industry, which communicates Western luxury values, all this is perhaps just another “virgin territory” to be annexed, but regional and Hungarian photographers and fashion photographers see in these tensions and contradictions the possibility of a new visual language. This language is one of closeness, intimacy, understanding; sometimes of irony, of consciously assumed and lived identity.
Through seventeen photographic projects, the Eastern European Beauty exhibition offers possible explanations of what the “Eastern European aesthetic” consists of, what its main characteristics are and what meanings it can take on in the international art, photography and fashion scene. The exhibition space functions as a kind of three-dimensional anthology. In one half of the exhibition, Hungarian photographers who, in addition to working in the fashion industry, also have their own autonomous artistic practice, present their ideas about their profession and the “Eastern European aesthetic” through their own work. In the other half of the gallery, various professionals will express their views on the subject through a selection of fashion photography from the region, a photo report, a photo book, a publication or an original personality or fashion icon.
Anna Keszeg & Emese Mucsi
Exhibiting artists: Antal Agatics, J. Almási. Csaba Ag Agamicics, Csaba Ámós, Dénes Babai, Kati Baricz, Kincső Bede, Gábor Czerkl, Krisztián Éder, Andrea Gáldi Vinkó, Dóra Galyas Denerak, András Ladocsi, Eszter Magyar #makeupbrutalism, Martin Wanda, Rafal Milach, Nish, Omara, Julie Poly, Giorgi Sumbadze, Gergely Szatmári, Balázs Szigligeti, Éva Szombat, Zoltán Tombor.