Sensation

Concept & Art Direction: Paulina Tsvetanova

Photos: Ralph Lagoi

Location: room capacity

Fashion & Accessoires from the sortiment of PAULINA’S FRIENDS

In a world full of unnecessary sensory overload, many of us crave silence, emptiness and arrival. The minimalism in all of its expressions and perversions is ever-present—this is a symptom of the overwhelmed affluent society, that knows everything, wants everything and can do everything. We try to flee into the void, and from ourselves. We stuff ourselves with addictive substances, to escape the insanity of the world. We do yoga and practice mindfulness, to maintain the illusion that we are in control of the situation – of our bodies, our souls and our minds. Excessive, longing, desperate. We are looking for something that doesn’t exist, or, in better words, exists, but has to be seen/ heard/ tasted/ felt in a novel way.

There are other ways to get in contact with or relieve yourself from yourself, for example through staging an entity-circus. Celebrating the abundance of our society and mental opportunities. The world is magnificent and it is life-affirming and delightful to break out of the conventional daily grind and experience a fairytale-like way of being. But how?

In this psychedelic photo series, we simulate the discovery of a new dimension in the everyday life. An ephemeral futuristic trip to a dreamworld destination, in which chaos and harmony join up with each other. A magic potion of hidden realisation behind the visible reality. Seeing something that doesn’t exist. A new, very special view on reality. And yes, absurdly there were no consciousness-expanding substances involved, just pure joy of experimentation and obsession with life.

Synaesthesia as a form of visual reality through artistic symbiosis. What even is that? Synaesthesia is an exceptional state, a phenomenon of melded sensory perceptions of things, that don’t exist: seeing sounds, tasting colours, smelling letters. One stimulus triggers another one and our hidden sensors are being stimulated. In this photo series, capture this exact interaction of colours, shapes, sounds, textures, materialities and contrasts.

We want to put you into a sensual frenzy. Suffuse and bathe you in a gorgeous wold of colourful haze, full of fireworks, lightnings, beautiful cue states and reflections. Old structures are being dissolved, filters are breaking apart. Everything is connected in the hyper-connective brain of an synaesthete, in the delusional world of the mentally ill, in the imagination of crazed artists. But, can one experience this alchemy as a ‘normal’ person? What even is ‘normal’?

We don’t have to hallucinate to make those kinds of irritating experiences. No, we don’t have to be on drugs and we don’t have to be hypnotised. An open mind leaves room for the complexity of reality and experiences enriching, unforgettable visual conditions. We obtain a different view on our environment, and our emotions and mindsets are transforming automatically. Does this mean that our way of living will be more efficient, more sustainable? Or are we going to be even more overwhelmed with everything?

Everyone should experience those kinds of artistic excesses. We are celebrating the special things, that are often invisible to the naked eye. But it is generally known, that one can only see/taste/feel well with the heart anyway.

A PRINT CATALOG WITH THESE AND MORE IMAGES IS ALREADY PUBLISHED