The Amount of Things

The repeated lockdowns during the pandemic put the brakes on consumption and gave us the opportunity to explore topics of clothing, sustainability, resource cycles, fashion, object relationships, self-image and the image of others by looking at individual wardrobes. As part of a course in the scenography department at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Otto Krause, Jasmin Hammer and students jointly developed a methodology for taking an inventory of one's own wardrobe. Eleven participants recorded their entire wardrobes in tabular form and on photos. These were sorted by item of clothing and contained information on material, colour, origin, condition, age, use and personal reference. The result was the 900-page book "Die Menge der Dinge einer bestimmten Art". The book and the project were presented from 24 November to 15 December 2022 in the Academy's exhibition space "Exhibit Eschenbachgasse" and the space became a walk-in wardrobe. For the exhibition, we adapted and scaled down the inventory process to involve more people. Instead of inventorying entire wardrobes, we launched a call within the academy and invited staff and students to take part in personal conversations about one selected item of clothing from their private wardrobes. The conversations followed the methodology and tabular form developed for the book and all items were consistently installed in the exhibition space. The space evolved into a temporary wardrobe where private stories and facts stood side by side, reflecting the complexity of each garment. We emphasised the large amount of information inscribed in textiles and gave participants and visitors the opportunity to look at clothing from a different perspective. The Amount of Things evolved and now co-operates with other cities and countries. A BIP (Blendend Intensive Programme) is being created. 

The collaboration within the BIP Blended Intensive Programme (ERASMUS +) takes place between the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Estonian Academy of Arts Tallinn in order to investigate different cultural approaches and relationships to clothing. The existing inventory method will be applied to the wardrobes of people from different professions and social classes in three different countries. We will spend a week working, thinking and developing a collaborative performance together with the different inventories, in which selected items of clothing will be presented by the students. The garment thus becomes the protagonist. This "show" will take place on Saturday 19th of October at 20 h in the Prospekthof of the Atelierhaus.