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MerimetsanAlchemyMerimetsanAlchemyMerimetsanAlchemy alchemic research of fashion, photography and social therapy
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MerimetsanAlchemy by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra and Diana Lui and Merimetsa. | ISBN: 978-91-976431-1-5 | Printed in Tallinn, Estonia for exhibition at HOP gallery, Tallinn, 14.06.- 03.07 2007.
The project was generously supported by: French Cultural Center in Tallinn, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Society of Arts and Craft of Gothenburg
Edited and published by Selfpassage (www.selfpassage.org) | Photos by Diana Lui (www.99medusas.com) | Project and exhibition organization by Sirja-Liisa Vahtra
MerimetsanAlchemy
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MerimetsanAlchemy took place at the Me-
rimetsa rehabilitation centre in Tallinn, Esto-
nia in May 2006. As a participatory fashion and
social therapy project it aimed at intersecting
value production from fashion with manifold
hands-on therapy work, replacing some of the
sweatshop like production processes at the cen-
tre. The endeavor was a reection of both inner
and outer change and the process took form in
the shape of garments and photographs.
Part one of MerimetsanAlchemy, the RE_TALLiationproject, began in spring 2004 as an intervention prob-
ing fashion as a tool for social work rehabilitation. The
one-month long collaborative work took place at the
rehab center Merimetsa in Tallinn, Estonia. The aim
was to blend fashion production values with social work
rehabilitation hence adding fashion value to the textiles
sewn in the Merimetsa workshop. This shows how the
shallow values of fashion could socially enrich the
therapy work at Merimetsa. The project was an open
call to suggestions and customization in all steps of pro-
duction, from co-design and production to customer
service improvements as well as fashion shootings at the
rehab center. The projects garment collection went on
sale in a local fashion store and was sold out immedi-
ately.
The purpose of both these projects,Merimet-sanAlchemy andRE_TALLiation, was to update the exist-
ing modus operandi of production into a new format,
a new process of operation, and make it run in another
way. The idea was not a forced social experiment but a
small-scale local gesture. These projects were a search
for a magic intersection between social therapy, em-
powerment and fashion for both workers and garments
at Merimetsa.
MerimetsanAlchemy, as part two of this project
furthers the exploration of intersecting the polyphonic
fashion system with rehab production. This time the
strategy was to widen the interface between production
situation and the consumer, not through a mimetic ap-
proach to fashion photography, but by respectful docu-
mentation of the work in Merimetsa. Instead of com-
promising with the aesthetics and modes of production
from fashion this step aimed at deepening the social
therapy work withfashion as an alchemic tool.
To understand both fashion and alchemy we
must relate these practices to a concept with which they
are both deeply entwined; the concept ofmyth. Fashion
and alchemy are both usually seen as unserious prac-
tices with neither the social value of the ne arts nor
the accuracy of the exact sciences. But myth is neither
the opposite of science, nor is it a deception or untrue
image of the world. Myths are the powerful imagina-
tive fabrics we weave our world with. Myth does notveil reality but makes it visible, and just like fashion we
live our lives inside it. It wraps the world with a holis-
tic threadwork; not fragmenting the world into atom-
ized and isolated data but weaving the narratives of the
world into visible and tangible shapes.
Though generally regarded as shallow and
ephemeral, fashion is one of the strongest myths in con-
temporary society. Fashion can be regarded as another
layer of the world, relating to deeper transformations in
the lived experience.
The world of fashion does not claim to access
an eternal truth, and does not exist in the same time
frame as science. To better understand this we can ex-
amine the concept of time, which according to ancient
Greeks was two-folded; Chronos andKairos. Modern sci-
ence has emerged from the concept of Chronos, time assequential duration and linear cause and effect relation-
ships. The chronological time is a quantitative mode of
measurement, and what we today have as a main con-
cept of time the time we can measure. Suffering can
be chronic, but passion can never be. Both passion and
fashion lives withinKairos, the momentary and the un-
determined special occasion, the passing instant of den-
sity and depth where opportunity and life is exposed. It
is the time of the carpe diem, the energy of the very
now and of being in the ow in the zeitgeist. Fashion
is one with its zeitgeist, and cannot be visible outside it.
When brought to the world where Chronos is exposed, to
science, the archive or museum, fashion is just a dead
skin. Perhaps a well tailored piece of clothing, but with-
out life and social form.
To say that fashion is to dress like everyone
else, but before everyone else might sound true from
a chronological perspective, but misses all magic of the
vivid occasion and the passion of the moment.
With its connection to the life of the passing
instant, fashion is always deeply connected to change
and transformations. Not only the transformation of
form/garment, what we usually regard as fashion, but
the deeper change of our dreams, aims and behaviors
elements our identity is made of. Fashion is a myth of
the moment, taking shape as our second skins through
which we live in the world.Alchemy is the practice engaging the transmu-
tation of matter and should not be misunderstood as
a new age revival of healing, mysticism and astrology.
Instead it is the methodic search for inner change sym-
bolized by outer transformations. The medieval experi-
ments of turning lead into gold were mere symbolic acts
of a larger task; turning sinful soul to higher spirit. Un-
derstanding alchemy as this deeper journey can make us
see how fashion can act as a symbol of inner change.
MerimetsanAlchemy was a project processing the
hope of inner and social change through highlighting
a possible intersection of fashion and therapy. Alchemy
has always been a practice collecting curiosities, open-
ing viable passages into the unknown. But it has never
been an aimless meandering. Instead it has been a vivid
quest of spirituality through various means. As men-tioned by French scholar of esoterism Antoine Faivre,alchemy is both a way of life and an exercise of vi-
sion. In its dynamic quest for transmutation of matter
and spirit, alchemy has through history been working
with the actualization of the possible. The possible in
this case is not a l inear extrapolation from the actuality
of here and now. The possible is also not the shad-
ow of reality, as Wittgenstein believes is philosophys
greatest misunderstanding. Instead reality is a shadow
of the possible.
This is a position of hope and of empower-
ment. The possible is at hand, and we can form it and
give it shape. It is a position where things are open for
change and where the imaginable is in uid form, ready
to transform and crystallize into reality.
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MerimetsanAlchemy
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In a similar way we should not understand fash-
ion as a question of adding symbolic labels and brands
to the social skin, but a spiritual passage in direct con-
nection to how we bring form to our identity.
Thus the matter ofMerimetsanAlchemy was made
of fashion and myth. But it is important to understand
that fashion is not the garment itself, nor a piece of fab-
ric with a label. It is not the image in a glossy magazine.
It is the projection of myth onto garments and the at-
titude and relation to this myth at the same time.
This brings us to the materialization of Me-
rimetsanAlchemy and the photographic images producedduring the project. The fashion image is an icon. It is a
passage to a higher ideal, a divine but unattainable ide-
al, the quintessential beauty. We relate to it, as through
a passage. We adore it because we aspire to look andbe
like it. Contrary to portrait photography, fashion pho-
tography dictates acting, not looking.
Portrait photography is a passage to the soul
of others. We perceive the same light through the im-
age that once hit the iris of the photographed subject.
We have a relation of reection, a deeper connection
between two subjects and souls. The photographs of
MerimetsanAlchemy are an amalgam between fashion and
portrait photography.
The material of the project was thus both gar-
ments and images, closely entwined through the proc-
ess. The garments produced were an apron and a ki-mono-style jacket in rough canvas working fabric and
very light linen. They were adjustable in size and easy
to change into, and as such combined two functions: as
work garments as well as elegant leisurewear. On one
hand a sturdy garment for the cultivation of matter, on
the other a thin veil of draped dreams. The transforma-
tion of both apron and kimono can be seen as a cook-
ing process of turning raw ingredients into rened food
as well as an interplay of roles and identities, combining
domestic utility with understated elegance.
The garments and their creators were docu-
mented by the photographer Diana Lui who has for
a long time consciously worked with the photographic
image as an honest portrait interface. The images she
produces show a sincere commitment exploring the
question of how we relate to ourselves in time. Her
operative craftwork and thorough piercing research on
the subjects portrayed acts as a tool for revealing con-
sonance and tension between the masks and roles we
enact in everyday life.
With the photographs as manifestations of the
fashion process and a window between two parallel sit-
uations of change, the portraits are used as a passage
for mutual existence. The world of production mirrors
to the world of consumption, but it is in the mirror the
transmutation takes form. The situation at Merimetsa
is revealed to the viewer by using a large format cam-era with negatives in 8 X 10 inches and an early 20th-
century camera. The profound and intimate process of
these portraits is a time-consuming procedure, creating
a connection between two contexts, Merimetsa Reha-
bilitation Center and Fashion as an alchemic tool.
These large format portraits act as a direct win-
dow between situations of hope and focus the work on
the process of intersubjective change between these ac-
tors in two different settings. Not seeing them as two
separate entities in each end of a production line, but
instead as two interconnected existences bridged by the
garment and with the photograph as an honest witness.
Focusing on this connection might bring a better under-
standing and exchange of mutual hope in situations of
similar inner work.
This connection between both contexts isthe manifestation of alchemy in the MerimetsanAlche-
my project bridging the inner and the outer world.
Bound by trust the process is sensitively developed on
each side of the camera, creating a situation similar to
an interface. Not the passive consumption of a glossy
fashion dream image, but a gesture towards a deeper
understanding of the relation between Merimetsa and
the photographer. It acts as a complement and contains
a wider eld of action as opposed to photographys im-
manent tendency of single-sided communication (the
photographer as operational master of the situation)
leaving more room for the model and photographer on
both sides to create the photographic image. A deep
surface of mutual transmutation.
The camera lens in this case becomes an eye of
mutual attention; a meeting of two intentions, wills and
souls witnessed by the photographic lm. Summon-
ing the models attention to the lens is one step in a mu-
tual attempt to transgress unintentional and habitual
poses in front of a camera. As the two attentions meet
(photographer and model) during the long process of
common understanding, a certain presence of being is
created between the two partners. The portraits reect
this deep process of mutual exchange with the photo as
materialized memory of a tacit agreement. It sums up
an alchemic process of garment design and rehabili-tation creation/production witnessed by the alchemic
processes of photography.
The exhibition at Gallery HOP is made to
reect the alchemic process developed through the
project. The visitors are encouraged to become partici-
pants, to witness and reect a process of inner change,
and to relate to it by trying on and wearing the garments
produced at Merimetsa. Perhaps these garments can
be a passage to self-engagement and become personal
sewing activities. Perhaps they can be portals through
which we can proceed with inner transmutation.
So lets try it on and step onto the stage. Say
goodbye to shyness, passivity and gloominess and en-
gage instead in forming our own attitude and relation
to the second skin. Raise your consciousness to seize
the moment and live passionately through the originalbeautiful myth of fashion!
by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, Diana Lui
and the fantastic people at Merimetsa.
Literature:
Antoine Faivre: Esotericism
inHidden Truths: Magic, Alchemy, and the Occult,
(edited by L. E. Sullivan)
Karen-Claire Voss: Spiritual Alchemy
in Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Moder n Times,
(edited by R. van den Broek and W.J. Hanegraaff)
Ludwig Wittgenstein:Notes on Philosophy
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MerimetsanAlchemy
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Nationality: Estonian
Personal History:
Occupation: Seamstress
Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia
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Nationality: Estonian
Personal History:Occupation: Embroiderer and weaver
Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia
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MerimetsanAlchemy
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Nationality: Estonian
Personal History:
Occupation: Seamstress
Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia
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MerimetsanAlchemy
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Nationality: Russian/Estonian
Personal History:
Occupation: Embroiderer
Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia
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MerimetsanAlchemy
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Nationality: Estonian
Personal History:Occupation: Painter
Location: Merimetsa Rehabilitation Center, Tallinn, Estonia
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MerimetsanAlchemy alchemic research of fashion, photography and social therapy by Otto von Busch, Sirja-Liisa Vahtra, Diana Lui and the wonderful people at Merimetsa