FLEWID DIGITAL
Photographer: Jordi A. Bello Tabbi
Writer: Simone Zangarelli
GALLERIA DEL DOMANI
Hello and welcome to Flewid Magazine. The “Galleria del Domani” was born in Pigneto, one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in Rome, with the intent to overcome the traditional artistic representations. But what kind of activities are carried in your space and what does it mean to bring new forms of art in a city like Rome?
The Galleria del Domani is an art Gallery that needs to be lived, a place where you can enjoy plastic, figurative and performative pieces, but most of all experiment and merge diverse techniques, always trying to maintain subtle the line between the public and the artist. We don’t have a stage but everyone can perform their art. The Gallery is the stage itself.
The relationship with the queer, fetish and LGTB cultures is really strong and felt. How does it have an impact on the estetica of the Club and what kind of response do you collect from the public?
The general climate of respect and freedom brings creative confrontation and a mixture of more styles. The Gallery spontaneously populates itself of colourful people, strict definitions come to be forgotten, fashion and the way people dress become part of the art itself.
Every boundary is an occasion to discover new horizons.
What kind of message do you want to transmit to the Gallery’s visitors and to those who don’t know you yet? Any projects for the upcoming future?
As for new projects, we have various public performative actions in program in autumn, many guests, screenings and exhibitions. It is our intention to bring the project off-site, in order to be inspired to create new situations and new confrontations.
MARNIE SCARLET
HI Marnie, it’s a real pleasure talking to you. Your drag is based on an eccentric aesthetic, that makes the audience think, for example your shoes made of syringes. Do you agree with this description? How would you describe your style?
A pleasure to talk to you too! I do like that description, I like to be avantgarde, to push boundaries, i like making peoples minds work, and challenge them a bit, show something different, I like to think outside the box, so my drag is also not to a formula, it is outside the box (sometimes I AM the box hahahaha).
How’s considered in the drag scene a WOMAN in drag? It is easier to be accepted or there’s a reverse discrimination process?
I live in London and the London and European scene is very accepting, perhaps because my drag is a little different, i also love to get to know other peoples drag. Most nights in London are mixed gender and mixed styles, it is very feritle ground for Drag and Cabaret and i am proud to be in this scene. Internationally i have been frowned upon at times, and been critised, but that is fine, you cant please everyone, and they are the closed minded ones (also often, these are very young people and influenced by narrow minded media) but overall i have been lucky to have had a good response to my art. Non-Binary, Women, Men , trans , drag should be ALL INCLUSIVE AND FABULOUS!
ELEGANCE AND VIOLENCE
Hello and welcome on our pages. Elegance and Violence is a dissonant combination that is always more present in contemporary art. In which way do you embed these two concepts in your performances?
Violence is able to shock, to hit hard and to instantly change the cards on the table, it is real.
Elegance is a passpartout, an attitude, it is what permits me to bring reality to the eyes of the spectator.
Elegance is somewhat innate and well accepted; Violance is a choice, very often not shared by most people.
In balancing the two there is my product.
I don’t think art should only emphasise beauty, and accentuate the human figure.
Art is a revolutionary arm, and as such it has to shock, it is obliged to do so!
It has to destroy in order to give rise to evolutions, eradicate established canons, reverse the rules.
There is no evolution without violence, no change without a stance.
Violence is the arm through which novelty is brought, a new concept; Elegance is the arm to make it understandable.
In your works there is a strong presence of tattoos, piercings, scars etc..Do you have a particular idea of the human body that you’re trying to transmit through your representations?
It’s not about transmitting a specific idea of the human body, but more about desecrating it.
My body is a book, my travel diary.
Every sign, every scar is the proof of a lived experience, pure energy, a tangible representation of life, my life.
Every body is destined to die, get older, and in the meantime I decided to use it instead of just waiting for it.
The human body is a vehicle, a mean, it’s not sacred. It is something that grows back, it re-shapes itself, it evolves starting from the scars brought by real life, a fully lived one.
So why be afraid to use when it in fact represents the only and unique canvas of life, receptive and representative of who we really are in this world?
BEATRIX CARLOTTA
Hi Beatrix, let’s talk about your performances. Gender equality and nature are one of the main topics in you exibitions. What’s your workflow?
My performance work exists as female gaze art regardless of whether it’s aimed at discussing equality or not, simply because I’m a woman speaking from my perspective about life, sexuality and identity. It then ends up also examining issues of equality in lots of moments where I focus on it because of it’s place in my life and the need to explore such things, discuss them and make points about them as I’m surviving and experiencing them. My relationship to using nature in my art is just another element of my real experience that comes through in the work. It’s all very autobiographical in this sense, and gardening is an important part of my life that’s gotten me through difficult times as a woman and connects me to my family and our roots, so all of those metaphors then seep into the roots of the performances as well and come out as motifs in my shows.
In your performance you usually wear clothes selfdesigned , where does the inspiration come from? How does your design become part of the performance?
My background began in fashion and fine art, and then very organically evolved into costume for performance. Using costume design in such a performative and narrative-driven way just feels completely right to me, as though it’s a really important colour in my pallet or tool in my toolbox as an artist who creates work telling stories. I love telling stories using design. The inspiration part depends on the subject or starting point. For example, I knew the subject matter I was feeling the need to bring to Roma because of things going on in my life around this time and due to the inspiration of the location. (themes using religion, feminism, concepts of sacrifice, nature, disobedience and identity for women and their bodies) Then a pivotal moment was finding a crimson, dark red lace to work with. This then becomes a huge catalyst for how I’d like to discuss and present the work both visually and conceptually, using dark red lace throughout the costume drama to discuss wombs and menstruation as I did with my show ‘Original Sin / Knowledge is Power’ at La Galleria del Domini.
MAX DEVIANT
Hi Max, it’s a pleasure to have you on Flewid. Years ago you opened a fetish boutique in London, tell us what it’s all about it.
After being on the London Fetish Scene since 1989, from modelling and performing to selling the actual latex itself as a fabric to all the Fetish Designers worldwide in a wholesale capacity for several years, in June 2016 I decided to start the latest chapter in my Fetish journey by opening “FAB – Fetish Alternative Boutique” in Camden Town, London’s last bastion of Alternative lifestyle.
It sells a varied range of Fetish & Alternative clothing in Latex (Fashion Grade), Leather, Vegan Leather, High Heels, “Fetish Accessories”, Jewellery and Artworks from a myriad of amazing designers and artists. Prices range from £ to ££££.
When I decided to go ahead and start this project, I asked myself where would I like go shopping? … I remember shops where one could have found lots of different designers under one roof and, although there are another couple of fetish shops here in London who sell their onw brand only, there were none that provided that eclectic combination of different styles and designs, so that’s excatly what I did!
The beauty of shopping at F.A.B. is that we style you for that complete look you have in mind, by being able to combine the aforementioned combination of different styles and designs, although we also have complete sets provided by the designers too, if one prefers one designer’s style over another; we also receive exclusive pieces that are not found anywhere else, not even on the designers’ website!
I’ve also added a Fetish Art Gallery to the mix! There are people out there who, like myself, have been on this Scene for a long time and pretty much have all the “Equipment & Accessories”, as well as lots of clothing already but sometimes they may lack the specific artworks to make their homes and “Play Areas” more akin to their lifestyles and discerning taste; we specialise in this specific area!
Who are the main artists you’ve worked with during your career and which advices do you feel like giving to those who work in this sector?
Well, I won’t ‘name-drop’ but suffice to say that I’ve been very fortunate to be “at the right time and at the right place” with the ‘birth’ of the modern Fetish Scene here in London at the end of the Eighties.
That’s when I started modelling and performing for all the designers and clubs , therefore I’ve worked with pretty much all of them over the years I was doing it and for the last decade or more I’ve been working in the UK and internationally with my partner Marnie Scarlet doing stage management and more.
Also, right before I opened my boutique “F.A.B. – Fetish Alternative Boutique” (FAB.LONDON) in June 2016, I was working for several years for Radical Rubber, a department of Libidex, selling the actual latex fabric wholesale, this allowed me to know pretty much all the Fetish designers worldwide.
In regards to any advice to people who work, or want to start, in this sector I would say that you will need passion for it. It’s not a very lucrative part of the fashion world and is extremely niche, you need knowledge and experience to succed…and it’s going to take a while before you get established enough to make a living out of it, food for thought there, especially before embarking on it seriously. Having said that, if you have that passion and drive it can be very rewarding, perhaps not financially but it will allow you to meet some amazing people from all over the world!
