TROUBLESHOOT - MARIANA LOBÃO
Working with objects, contexts and systems of display, Mariana questions how everything is a living body. Her practice is about the distribution and circulation of objects and ideas, questioning what is for sale and what isn’t. Running away from the concrete categories or spaces things exist in, she places herself in-between, within a lack of definition.
Mariana Lobão: In my last show at Werkplaats, we had to plan an exhibition, but I didn’t want to use the white cube, so I presented various works, including this bag (sheep fur from Iceland and chains), in a charity shop on display. I didn’t say that it wasn’t for sale, so some people wanted to buy it, which was funny. At the end of Werkplaats, I wasn’t so inspired by graphic design anymore, so I just started making things.
Interviewer: You make a lot of things that flirt with art, design and fashion. Where do you see these objects belonging?
ML: They don’t really belong in a pre-determined space, I don’t think. What I try to do is find alternative ways to present them, other than a gallery or a window display. I really want them to circulate. I want people to have them and bring them into their own space. I don’t really have a vision for an ideal space where they can exist. Because I like how objects move across time and space and how different ideas can be embedded in them. I think they’re just hollow objects and wherever they are, they can just gain new meaning.
Int: I think a lot of artists who work with the idea of fashion or product sometimes get stuck in making work that is about fashion, but from this very critical artistic point of view. I think your work, while still being critical, is much more indulgent. You also participate in fashion, which feels honest.
ML: I think if you try to stand against fashion, you’re already participating in it, so you’re kind of giving in to the system. And I’m interested in the system of fashion, how it helps us create images, ideas, objects and associations. I try to infiltrate that a bit.
Int: How do you participate in fashion?
ML: By consuming it. I pay attention to it and I know the names of the people who make it relevant or irrelevant. But as a maker, I’m not a fashion maker. If you take fashion influencers, for instance, they are these big commercial agents in fashion, and I’m nowhere near that. Fashion influencers try to generalize fashion and make it a global experience. But for me, it’s very personal.
Int: What is fashion for you?
ML: It’s a type of technology we’ve developed as humans. It’s very basic in its inception. It’s like “oh, it’s cold or it’s hot”, so we combine things to address these conditions. And this is still true today. But fashion is also a type of language. Along the way, we realized that we’re actually saying something when we get dressed. It’s a mode of expression. So now, we’re constantly trying to balance these two aspects together.
Int: What is Troubleshoot?
ML: The idea started with the name, because it has “shoot” in it, like a plant that grows where nothing else grows. Then I really wanted to create a shop as a catalogue. So, the structure was there, but I didn’t have the content. I always played with the idea of having a second-hand shop. Because I like clothes, I buy a lot of clothes and I wish I could buy more. Not necessarily for me, but also to share, to create this idea of a living closet. So, Troubleshoot became a container for this. I can get clothes that I like and, at the same time, make them available for other people if they want. It’s also intimate, with the publication aspect, people can see my personal interests and aesthetic references.
Int: And how is it a reaction to the fashion consumption system of today?
ML: It has to do with this immediate, constant, very fleeting input of what people are doing with fashion. It’s very fast, and you lose your sense. I wanted to bring back the physicality of the media that brings fashion to you. Before it was on our phones, it used to be in magazines. I enjoy printed formats a lot. I don’t want to contribute to the mass production of images that exist today. I cannot be in that conversation of being relevant and posting a lot, so this is just a good alternative for that.
Int: And it also feels like you get to participate in fashion without owning something. That’s the nice thing about magazines, you kind of do have or possess fashion, you have these clothes. You don’t have to buy them to appreciate them. Also, the process you create for Troubleshoot, where people can submit their addresses, get a catalogue by post and then get a password for the website, where they can finally buy the clothes. This also feels like troubleshooting. Like you’re creating a huge error, a detour to get to the product.
ML: Exactly. For me, it’s like a website where you can really see the clothes, like a magazine. Nowadays, it’s actually very hard to see the clothes that brands are selling. Everything they put out is experiences and setups. And whatever it is that you were looking at will disappear and be replaced within a month. Everything is much more elusive now. The internet is so vast that people forget to preserve things in the state in which they first exist. With Troubleshoot, buying is not the point somehow. It’s there if you want it, but it’s also just about appreciating this world and the clothes. People get the catalogue for free, that’s my way of saying thank you.
Int: Do you think fashion is a private space or a public space?
ML: The reason I was drawn to bags is that I was interested in the idea of containment, a bag is both. There is the interior space and the exterior space, so you have the inside of the cocoon or shell, a place you can retract to. I think fashion can be that way a lot of the time. At the same time, in fashion, you’re always going to be talking about the gaze and how things look. How the exterior is perceived and how you present yourself to the world. It can be a very empowering tool, especially when you start dealing with gender dynamics and how you can perform gender with clothes. It can be a safe space you create for yourself and for the outer world. So, to me, it’s both at the same time, something you can play with. Maybe you want it to speak to your inner self, or you want to use it as a tool to completely get out of yourself.