vom Abzeichen zum Auszeichnen

                                                                               

2020-2022
badges
series #1: black anodized & coated aluminum, stainless steel
series #2: casted aluminum, stainless steel 

For the PhD enquiry “Pharmakos”,
research was conducted at historical archives, where cases of social injustice and oppression had been documented. The investigation looked into the design evolution of wearable signs, worn as indicators to systematize and marginalize human bodies during the WWII.


The work draws its title from administration letters of the time and it appropriates and subverts the black triangle ; a sign which was assigned to any prisoner classified as “asocial”. Thus, the work attempts to reverse it into an honouring distinction.


Historically, the pink triangle is a well-known protest emblem used by LGBTQ+ movements. That too, was invented by the Nazis as a derogating sign against homosexuals. A lesser-known aspect though, is that the pink triangle was assigned to men only. When homosexual female bodies had to be classified, then they were indexed into the “asocial” group. A grouping which targeted numerous sub-identities that spanned from homeless to non-conformist women to any behaviour that transgressed the top-down guidelines. The black triangle is considered historically the most feminized category of the WWII.



Following common strategies of socio-political dissent, such as appropriation and subversion, and while acknowledging similar locations of thought emerging globally today, the work proposes statement-pieces that speak of resilience, emancipation and self-determination of the female body and the social body.










A year after, in 2021, in response to the first series of badges in black anodized aluminum, series#2 was created to be set in dialogue with the already existing artworks. Though they belong to the same project, share the same title and objectives, the pieces of series #2 were created in casted aluminum and were drawn intuitively by the use of flame. Stripped by the use of color, they are still making links back to plain metallic tags used during WWII. Their organic and bodily references reflect the content of the project, while they are complementing the industrial mechanic aesthetic of series#1.

2022 / Vivi Touloumidi

For a deeper insight into the project please read: