EXHIBITION ANNA KOSIDLO & A SNEAK PEEK INTO HER SKETCHBOOKS

ANNA KOSIDLO (2002), previously also interviewed by WAER, is a multidisciplinary artist focused on fashion from Poland. She's currently studying Fashion Design at Willem at de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, Netherlands. On Sunday May 4, she will present her graduation fashion collection titled "Stuck Anywhere But Here", never before showcased. The works will be on view at WAER'S monthly exhibition space Het Lokaal, as the starting point of the Art and Culture Route in Middelburg. The collection will only be on view that day, open between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM at Zusterplein 8, Middelburg.

"Stuck Anywhere But Here" is a "silent conversation between fabric and dream." KOSIDLO draws inspiration from 1920's cinema, antique clothing, and fables. The collection weaves together different methods such as sketching, painting, and collage with unique materials like vintage textiles, lace, silk, and organza, forming fluid, art nouveau-inspired forms. Each garment therein embodies a specific character from a surrealist film co-created with FEMKE HAMELAAR where costumes speak in place of words. In doing so, KOSIDLO and HEMELAAR revive the art of storytelling without sound, a 1920's tradition now reborn in the 2020's.

In her overall work, KOSIDLO'S weaves together garments that breathe with story and spirit. Her creations are not merely worn, but they're inhabited and lived in. She sees them as relics of dreamscapes that she shapes by memory, myth, and the "echoes of forgotten lands".

At the meeting point of fashion, performance, and visual drawings, KOSIDOLO'S process begins in abstraction through samples, collages, and eventually sketches. She draws upon surreal imagery, often including mythological and folkore-inspired elements. She combines this with a faded grandeur of the 1920/30's, creating silhouettes both fierce and tender.