www.idrizjossa.be
Idriz Jossa graduated from the Fashion Academy in Antwerp in the late eighties and became known at the time as the designer of ‘New Beat Fashion’ and of his hyped 2006 collection ‘Clochard de Luxe’.
His 25-year past in the fashion world is noticeable in the artworks he presents. On the one hand, he shows deconstructed shop-window mannequins that he dresses, not in costumes, but as if they were models, leaving a striking impression. On the other hand, he makes 3D-printed models with accessories that amaze the viewer with the surprising interplay of different materials. The result is often a somewhat unsettling coherence of opposites. In fact, his ‘provocative absurdist’ sculptures depict the chaos and madness that have come to dominate life in recent years, through its multiplicity, confusion and raging speed. He sees them as a kind of freedom fighters for what we have survived in recent years or what we will continue to experience. In all their absurdity they also have something funny and ironic. The models speak of being human; the bursting extraversion of the figures also shows their vulnerability. At the same time they are meant as a counterweight to the chaos and ultimately also as an expression of sensitivity and beauty, because in spite of everything he wants to keep calling himself an aesthete.
The black-and-white Appartatelier photos are by Patrick Van Vlerken