City Lace - Kranj is a continuation of a series City Lace started in 2012. The series investigates city maps and their identity. Kranj’s city map is transformed into a garment, without a single remaining characteristic other than its very basic communicative scheme: the streets as connective tissue. Using digital technology and a laser cutter, a visual composition was created based on alternating spatial and linear elements, fullness (city blocks) and gaps (raster). Understanding that the city is traditionally conceptualized as a collection of fragments, which implies a certain disintegration within a whole, a city’s matrix was created using the vector graphic model. Maps are a visualization of information based on an arbitrary code. The line – the most basic element of visual art – becomes an identity trait of the city and reveals its very character, which it differentiates from other cities.
Matija Čop is a Croatian born, London based textile and fashion artist. He graduated from Royal College of Art in 2017. Matija’s work is held in the permanent collection of Centre Pompidou Museum of Modern Art in Paris. He worked for Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. Artist commissions for The Hunger Games, Lady Gaga, Solange and Rihanna. His work was featured in several international fashion magazines and exhibitions.
Photography: Maša Pirc/BIEN 2021
