WHO CARES?
There has always been in us, human beings, not only the need for
representation, but the need to represent ourselves to the world. This
organic desire to show who we are, was the main kick for fashion to
become as important as it is today. Fashion; noun, set of opinions, tastes,
as well as collective ways of acting, living and feeling. To feel collective. If it
gives us this sense of collective, would fashion have the power to do the
opposite, and not only represent our behaviors, but also to change them?
It is argued that we were consumed by lust, in all layers of society. We remain
blind through advertising, which shapes our habits and induces us to consume
almost everything we buy and value. Many people attribute this weight to
fashion, as something futile and expendable. It may turn out to be all of that, but
its incredible ability to change behavior is undeniable thanks to the personal
connection it has with all of us. This need to express ourselves as individuals
before society makes fashion much more profound and political than it appears.
When we consider all our rich cultural baggage, manifesting it by the way we
dress becomes a very powerful act.
Gatti, an artist who dedicated part of his career to the fashion world, begins a
process of relating his messages and artistic interventions to this field that is often
labeled as vain. He has a growing desire to take advantage of this peculiarity of
fashion to attract the attention and desire of different tribes and direct this
feeling towards issues that are often ignored or minimized. After all, the
consumer network sells us a dystopia that blinds us to the vicious cycle in which
we find ourselves and leaves us with slightly more corrupted values and the
planet with scarcer resources, which keeps us even more distant from the initial
purpose of all.
With an analytical eye, “Who cares?” throws the objects of satisfaction in our
face, the most varied superfluous needs of a generation immersed in avarice and
in the belief, that there is nothing more pleasurable than accumulation. The artist
proposes to rethink the use of the luxury market as a weapon of awareness and
influence. By stamping them on devalued elements or social guidelines that
urgently need more attention, the artist seeks to encounter a possible agreement
between the two spheres. Fashion as an essential ally of people and life. Once you
can express yourself, you can tell the world what you want from it.
It is a fact that, nowadays, we are moving towards a society that increasingly
values individualism, and that has a sordid need for its ego to be caressed, while
many of those who hold the power of propaganda, the monopoly of capital and
information continue to turn that need into commodities and distract us from our
most harmful structural problems. On the other hand, the strength that these
same platforms have, and has been using recently, to turn the tide and use their
spotlight to identify and treat such wounds is also clear.
It is then that the artist masterfully uses this series of photographs to raise issues
that are sometimes too complex to be addressed without artistic depth. Are we
going to continue looking for happiness and self-realization in possession and
pseudo superiority in relation to the other, or is it still possible to see the true
essence - to feel collective - from which advertising continues trying to hide?
