Together with Absolut we wanted to create a new kind of event, where local artists interpreted the idea of “ouroboros” and how that can be transformed into art, design and music. The local artists were Pella Kågerman, the designer collective Klaun, and the band Tussilago.
Exploring the space around us by taking a closer look at phenomena such as the déjà-vu and other repetitive aspects of human experience, we ask ourselves: A copy, is a copy, is a copy, is a copy, of what? The ouroboros is a tail-devouring snake that symbolizes something that is constantly re-creating itself. What other ancient symbol could possibly illustrate the very ephemeral and often circular nature of fashion, the way the ouroboros does? A fashion world where trends go in boom-and-bust cycles, the memory is like that of a guppy and people are constantly moving forward, often by recycling, imitating and copying themselves or others.
About KLAUN Collective
Klaun Collective is a clothing brand. At our party they performed with two parts of the group ”Kriget”. Ylva Falk is a performer and dancer from Paris who performed with rapper Michel Dida. Behind Klaun we find Sophia Venai, also known as the artist Soso, who was singing on stage tonight.
About Pella Kågerman
Pella Kågerman just graduated from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. When the guests arrived to our party they went through the door to the ”game of faith & power”, a live action role-play where ten participants played roles loosely based on figures connected to the fashion world.
About Tussilago
The group Tussilago (coltsfoot in English, one of the earliest flowers to bloom each spring) is a quartet represented by Ingrid, a record label and artist collective, founded by Lykke Li, Peter, Bjorn & John and Miike Snow amongst others. Pierre Riddez, Rickard Renström, Samuel Lundin, and Zacharias Zachrisson of Tussilago have released a debut EP on Ingrid and two brand new songs.
The Ouroboros is illustrative of the fact that snakes have an ability to seemingly rejuvenate themselves by shedding their skin and throughout history most cultures have assigned symbolic meanings to the reptile. Particularly significant is the snake that bites its own tail, the ouroboros, as a symbol for eternity in a figurative sense. It has been of great interest to different religions, mythologies, alchemy, psychoanalysis and various expressions of popular culture. Different eras have interpreted the symbol in ways that match their own experience. Along with the symbolism that surrounds the snake as an animal that is constantly rejuvenating itself, the circle forms a powerful metaphor for cyclic repetition. What’s certain is that it keeps telling us that, through constant repetition, each end corresponds to a new beginning.
A Ghost, a bag, and feet
Short Story on the theme of the ouroboros by Chuck Young
“Have you ever found yourself in an area that you haven’t been in years, where you may have lived during a couple of the great years of your youth, and while pumping gas, realized that you’re actually looking for the ghost of yourself and hoping to have him tell you the secret of how to feel the way that he does or at least have him balance things out by reminding you of all the shitty parts about being him that nostalgia has dropped from your narrative? Have you ever felt like your heart was that plastic bag filled with seashells that you collected as a kid when you weren’t sure that you’d ever see a beach again because New England winters make you forget that anything else exists, but only after nondescript ocean years when it’s crammed into a corner of your closet and you find it after your mom makes you clean it out the summer before leaving for college and you go “oh yeah” and “this smells like piss?”
Have you ever looked down, after almost a decade, and noticed that the shoes you were wearing weren’t yours and now everything you do is a fuck you to your feet?
Chuck Young is a writer from New York
