World 221, Enactment i: report

This Enactment was developed from

World 221

View down a steep flight of stairs, colourful posters of mythical creatures on the wall to the right.

Dim interior, light provided by candles on a small table and some overhead spotlights. A woman by the table holds a lit candle.

A participant being dressed in a voluminous blue-green shiny dress, someone in the background capturing the scene on a mobile phone.

Shiny blue-green diaphanous fabric hanging, wing-like, from someone’s forearm, attached by three blue ribbons tied in bows.

Participant viewed from behind, dressed in blue-green shiny dress, with ribbons from the sides of the skirt tied around her outstretched arms. A young woman stands by holding a vest-like garment with trailing ribbons ready, while others are standing by watching.

Close-up of feet in black pull-on mid-calf-length boots being tied onto tall platform soles with criss-crossed tape across the foot and going up the boots.

Woman in boots balanced on platform soles holding a decorative artefact made from wire bent into leaf-like shapes covered in fabric in shades of yellow and orange, as if aiming to adorn herself, watched by an amused bystander.

This Enactment explored World 221, in which people connect with mythical beasts through dress.

It was organised by Maria Fernanda León, Candelaria Baptiste, Nathalia Huertas, Laura M. Restrepo and Gabriela Cruz, third-year undergraduate BA Design students in the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

It was one of a number of enactments that were created by students for a public event, Wearable Speculations, at Juanita Echeverri’s gallery in Bogotá.

The text guiding this Enactment:

In World 221 humans have formed a belief system that recognizes the effect that various artifacts which work as clothing have on its believers. These garments increase the connection people have with beasts that endow their bodies with certain attributes related to their movement, perception and performances by modifying their shape. The morphological transformations can be seen through a ceremony where they are directly manifested onto the believers.

Three great beast families shape the existence of this world: Corpusia, Modeias and Perfos, each one with its own characteristics. All beasts are led by Inoxiva who created every being.

Every new year, the great Ceremony of Inoxiva is celebrated, where people receive a beast that will guide their future by

means of a card. People perform a ritual where they bodily recognise the effects of this beast by dressing up as its corresponding artefact. While under the effect of the beast they must complete certain movements or actions and reflect on the changes the garment brings to their body and how it creates a particular performance that adheres to the identity.

In this enactment, visitors were invited to take part in the Ceremony of Inoxiva, selecting a beast, adorning their body and generating movements in response, and finally reflecting on the experience.

This publication introduces the Beasts of Raugnora:

UniAndes_2023_World221_Eni_report1

For more details, see the group’s report (which includes a recipe to recreate the enactment for yourself):

UniAndes_2023_World221_Eni_report2

The whole Wearable Speculations event was a great success, attracting a big audience to experience the fictional worlds. The students were proud of their achievements.

Here are reflections from three group members:

Laura: We discover that clothes are a way to reclaim a place. Our beasts gave people the strength to act, to do things they didn’t have before. Besides, the cards deck was magically accurate and spoke to them. One person told us that the beast gave her the answer to something that was happening. We didn’t have to ask questions because while we helped them to get dressed, they trusted us with their life stories. It was an intimate space. Fashion Fictions taught me how to seed doubts to transform.

Maria Fernanda: I want to do it again. I want to experiment more with the elements and the enactment we designed. I want to keep looking for the effects of clothes on our bodies. I also learned the importance of creating the right atmosphere. We must pay attention to the environment and design it. It is part of what made the enactments in the gallery special. All this feels like theory in action, in practice. A place to invite to discuss. Fashion Fictions was a great inspiration to continue into this speculation process.

Nathalia: Fashion Fictions was a significant compass. When we felt lost, we had their experience on their website to see what to do next. It gave us the confidence to trust the process. I could understand my practice better through others’ practice.

Young man looking down at himself as he is helped into a costume, a wire and fabric artefact hanging from a loop around his neck.

Young woman being helped into an ornate pink beaded mask with trailing ribbons to complement the shiny bright pink laced corset she has on over her white shirt and denim skirt.

Crowded gallery space with around 15 people, one in costume, standing conversing in small groups.

Hands holding a mobile phone in dim lighting, the screen capturing two women, one in costume.

Adapt this Enactment

Would you like to adapt this Enactment for your setting? Please feel free to use the recipe included in the pdf report embedded above – and tell us how it went! Send an email to Amy with your news.

This Enactment was devised by Maria Fernanda León, Candelaria Baptiste, Nathalia Huertas, Laura M. Restrepo and Gabriela Cruz, based on a World contributed by the same group, using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the authors and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.

Photographs: Alejandro Barragan.

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