ISKREN LOZANOV

“I shall make the heavens a temple and the stars an altar” – Tommaso Camponella
Utopia is a term that means an ideal place that doesn't exist. It has been used to describe an imaginary world where the social justice is achieved as well as the principles that could guarantee it. Utopia symbolizes people's hopes and dreams. Utopia turns to be synonymous with impossible, because an ideal life in an ideal society that it offers appears to be out of reach. The authors of utopias depict the societies similar to theirs but better organized. They also offer a detailed plan of how we can create such a society and how it might be run. The term was taken from Thomas More's novel Utopia, published in 1551, where he depicted an ideal society based on equality, economic and political prosperity and where poverty and misery were eradicated.
My inspiration comes from the philosophical work The city of the sun written by Tommaso Camponella. A Poetical Dialogue between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea-Captain, his guest. In his novel Camponella describes the perfect world which is closely connected and possible only if people are understanding God and deal well the science. There all people are equal dignity. One of the most spectacular and imaginative aspects are the painted round walls of the city and the wall that holds up the columns of the temple and gradually descending in large circles, following the order of the planets from Mercury to Saturn, we encounter illustrations of the heavens and the stars, of mathematical figures, of every country on earth and of all the marvels and secrets of the minerals and nature.
In my collection I am searching for serenity, purity and unity. The fabrics are integral part of the story. A series of layered organza underlines the curves of the body, but as looking it more abstract its seems that it underlines the spirit around it. I also experiment with a transparent vinyl because it most define the female nudity and beauty of the body, which in the utopia world have specific meaning. The cuts on the vinyl from which are going in and out the organza symbolize the unity and the connection of the spirit with the body. This idea leads me to look into the clothes more molecular. For me the circle is the perfect form and the crystal in it represent the knowledge. All this forms and symbols as the spirit, the atom and the God's particle draw my utopia.