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We live in a modern world where everything is changing every moment. Every concept and event can evoke another event. Discovering these associations sometimes helps us better connect with the busy world around us. In this article, we will look at the relationship between two forms of today's performances: catwalk and performance art. We want to answer the question, is the catwalk an artistic performance?
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What is performance art?
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“Performance art”, which often uses the term “performance art” as its Persian equivalent, is a branch of modern conceptual art. This type of art is rooted in visual arts. However, elements of theater art, music and dance are also used in it. Today, technological facilities play an important role in performance art. The dimensions of this branch of modern art are so wide that some believe that it cannot be comprehensively defined. However, we can talk about its main components.
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The basic condition for the formation of an artistic performance is the presence of the audience and communicating with them. Even the smallest impact on the audience can include this connection. For example, the audience can be put in a situation to find a new experience of seeing the creation of a painting while listening to a piece of music. Lighting and space design also play an important role in the formation of an artistic performance. Also, in many works of performance art, the performer's body plays an essential role. Different concepts are represented through the body.
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What is a catwalk??
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Catwalk, which is translated as “walking like a cat” in Farsi, is an integral part of today's fashion shows. One of the important events that happens in the modern world and is attended by both ordinary people and artists is a fashion show. In these fashion shows, a fashion designer displays his works. He brings the clothes he designed around a special concept to life on mannequins and displays them with a special theme and atmosphere. Each mannequin walks the catwalk on a T-shaped stage.
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What is important in the catwalk is the display of moving bodies wearing special clothes. In fact, the mannequins should walk with such arrogance and pride that the audience thinks that if they wear those clothes, they can be just as proud of themselves. Nowadays, designers use various art facilities, including theater and music, in their catwalks to present their works as attractively as possible.
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What is the similarity between catwalk and performance art??
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There is no doubt that the catwalk is a kind of performance as an event held for a specific audience. But can it be considered a work similar to a performance art? What common elements are there between these two forms of performance?
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Run around a concept!
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One of the meeting points of a catwalk and a performance is the concept of both of them. In a performance art work, the artist tries to shape his performance ideas around a specific concept. A concept that can be taken from the whole work. In a fashion show, the designer tries to design his catwalk based on a specific concept and theme. In fact, both the performance designer and the catwalk designer are concerned with conveying the concept to their audience.
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The presence of bodies
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We already said that in many works of performance art, the performer's body is the central point of the performance. It goes without saying that in a catwalk, it is the bodies of the mannequins that play the main role; But when the body is at the center of a performance, it can no longer be a normal body. In an artistic performance, the performer's body has a special presence. A presence different from the normal presence of a body in space. In a catwalk, the mannequin's body is no longer a normal body. This body has been trained for this type of performance and has learned to display its body in a way that excites the audience. The body plays a key role in both of these performances.
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Everything happens in a moment!
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One of the main similarities between performance art and the catwalk is that both of them take place in the present moment. To simplify this issue, we can mention their difference from theater. Although the theater is also performed in the present time, but in a theater performance, the actors present a story for representation. While in a performance or catwalk, the artist and performer does not represent anything. Everything is formed only to be exposed to the viewer. Space and atmosphere are created and experienced in the moment. Just like tasting a food for the first time!
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Use of light, sound and image
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Both in the catwalk and in an artistic performance, various light, sound and image facilities are used. Technology is advancing every day and these various facilities help artists to create more attractive performances in front of their audience. Audio and visual facilities are also a powerful tool in the hands of designers and artists to create their desired atmosphere and influence the audience as much as possible.
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Finding similarities by introducing several examples
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One of the designers who uses ideas similar to artistic performances in his fashion shows is John Galliano. In the fashion show that he designed for Margiela's 2024 collection in Paris, he used elements such as live music with atmosphere and staging that evoked the theme and mood of the 90s to captivate his audience even more. In this fashion show, the models walked the catwalk with cinematic theatrical figures in a scene like a street cafe and gave special poses and movements to their bodies, each of which inspired an emotion to the audience.
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Another very interesting example of a fashion show using elements of performance art is the spring fashion show of the AVAVAV brand at Milan Fashion Week 2024. In this runway, which was directed by Beate Karlsson with the concept of No Time to Design, No Time to Explain, the models were rushed or pushed onto the stage in half-length dresses; Some of them even put on their clothes on stage and left the stage in a hurry.
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Also, in another runway of the same brand and again directed by Beate Karlsson at Milan Fashion Week 2024, the audience was given garbage to throw at the models. An idea that turned this runway into one of the most controversial fashion shows of the year. It should be noted that the participation of the audience in the performance is one of the modern elements of artistic performances.
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Another designer who uses performance art elements in his fashion shows is Henrik Vibskov. For example, in his Fall/Winter 2024 collection at Copenhagen Fashion Week, which was called The Daily Chewing Gum Therapy Session, he designed the runway to look like a doll's house, with closets that resembled large volumes. It had come out to the gum. The models walked the catwalk in this fantasy scene and the performers wore clothes that puffed up like chewing gum; At certain moments, they appeared behind the closets. Conceptual and fantasy staging is one of the other characteristics of performance art.
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Conclusion: The catwalk dressed as an artistic performance!
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In the modern world in which we live, the border between everything has disappeared; Different arts have merged and it is difficult to separate them. An event like a catwalk is so similar to an art like performance art that they cannot be separated easily. At least the images we see on the catwalks are so similar to art performances that it makes it difficult for us. But despite all these similarities, there is still a difference and that is the purpose of their formation. A performance is formed with the purpose of creating art, and a catwalk is formed with the purpose of introducing and presenting the works of a fashion designer or a specific brand. So, it may be concluded that the catwalk is a modern event dressed as an artistic performance.
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