Garaža Kamba

When a deer halts in front of a vehicle, the one thing that hypnotizes it through uncertainty and fatally attracts it are headlights. Contrary, in Robert Fenrich’s case the object of fascination becomes the interior and atypical materials inside of cars, things that many experience through touch, but cannot say they overly notice or think about them extensively. Whilst modes of transport are meant to take us to a known or deliberate destination, this exhibition, which is forebodingly named SPEED LIMIT 69, lays emphasis on the speed of the journey that is taking spectators into uncharted waters with the help of their familiarity with materials. The observer appears to be caught up in a well-known, yet unknown and difficult, situation; as in a Lynchian movie, the focus is on the simultaneous duality of Fenrich’s works, which are artwork and item of clothing in one – hence they are sculptures in the form of atypical materials and also garments in the form of already experienced textile compositions. Robert’s interest in the textiles of car seats and various other materials inside of cars, led him towards producing his own avant-garde fashion line with the goal of wearability, unlike high fashion pieces that are typically unwearable. The first step in humanizing these avant-garde garments was taken during its prelude exhibition within the curatorial collective KUĆĆA and was executed by 6 performers dressed in specific statement pieces, during which the actors’ unwearability and dehumanization were more in the forefront; models turned into moving dolls, pieces of clothing wore them and not vice-versa. 

Fashion and car runway converge and unite into a specific term, that is already familiar to us through its negativity – fast fashion – but in this context it takes on a completely different meaning. We have all heard of the term fast fashion in which cheap but wearable clothes soon turn into rags because of poor quality and absence of ethics during manufacture. Here, however, unwearablematerials that have been modified, transform into something new with the goal of lastingly keeping their functionality. These former automotive objects are being converted into clothes through accelerated evolution of atypical materials by which they progress from their original intent of experimental sculpturality and completely reach new levels of everyday utility, thus culminating in the concept of INDECENT brand.

Gallery