Ena Čuček X CIMO (HR)

Project Awakening is developed specifically for BIEN and it is a continuation of the dialogue between the artist Ena Čuček and CIMO (Centre for Research of Fashion and Clothing). For the context of BIEN Ena Čuček proposed a triptych that highlights her current visual research focus on collage practices. It examines the visual translation of haptic and textural sensations. The work evolves from the fragmentation process of her watercolour paintings as a strategy of rethinking spatial-surface relations. Individual elements reference natural entities that freely take over the paper surface. Their tissues intertwine suggesting symbiotic bodies in motion susceptible to expanded correlation between vision and touch.

Ena Čuček graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, majoring in New Media, and Industrial Design at the Design Studio at the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb. In her practice, materiality is important and she often deals with the themes of everyday objects and phenomena. Her works are most often on the border between collage, object, installation, and ceramics. She exhibited at HDD’s Croatian Design Exhibition 23/24 in Lauba. In 2019, she had a solo exhibition Sometimes Red, Sometimes Transparent, Sometimes in Color at the f8 Gallery in Zagreb, and in 2021, she exhibited at the group show Briefing on Soft Arts organized by CIMO. In 2021, she launched the Iliya brand.

The  Centre for Research of Fashion and Clothing  (CIMO) is a nonprofit organisation founded in 2013 and based in Zagreb, Croatia. CIMO was established with the aim of researching the theoretical and creative aspects of fashion and clothing as part of contemporary visual culture. They aim to contextualise specific local practices and phenomena in relation to the global fashion system and academic fashion discourse. Some of the topics they cover are the rise and fall of the local textile industry, working class clothing practices, post socialist fashion histories, reinvention of different local craft traditions, socially engaged collaborative textile practice, soft arts and experimental educational programs for young fashion designers and visual artists.