IOSOY trans­pa­rency – sustainability

The­med exhi­bi­tion of IOSOY by Bar­bara Wei­gand under the patro­nage of Ingo Seu­fert – Gal­lery for Con­tem­porary Pho­to­gra­phy. In addi­tion to the Easy­glam cou­ture series, IOSOY‘s first artist edi­tion will also be pre­sen­ted which was crea­ted toge­ther with Munich-based photo artist Die­mut von Funck. Four of her motifs are pre­sen­ted as large-format fine art prints, accom­pa­nied by three pho­to­gra­phic works by fashion pho­to­gra­pher Golda Fruh­mann who works in Paris and Munich.

Bar­bara Wei­gand, owner of the IOSOY brand and CDO of AMUI, initi­ally inten­ded to study fine arts after gra­dua­ting from school, but ulti­mately deci­ded on tex­tile design, as she has always been fasci­na­ted by fabric, espe­cially by fabric prin­ting. During her free­lance career from 1991 to 2001, she spe­cia­li­zed in large-format flo­ral prints. At the begin­ning of 2000, the first break­down occur­red in the tex­tile indus­try, which forced her to give up her pre­vious invol­ve­ment in Sri Lanka, to leave the coun­try and to reo­ri­ent her­self. In 2008 she ven­tu­red into fashion and foun­ded her label IOSOY. To make mate­rial, shape and color weara­ble in unusual com­bi­na­ti­ons was her goal and became her trade­mark.
Lon­ge­vity and sus­taina­bi­lity are at the cen­ter of her phi­lo­so­phy. Lon­ge­vity is sus­tainable and this sus­taina­bi­lity needs trans­pa­rency in all pro­duc­tion steps in order to bind the cust­o­mer emo­tio­nally to IOSOY. IOSOY means “I am” – the ana­gram YOSOI, on the other hand, stands for Y(OUR) O(WN) S(TORY) O(F) I(NTEGRITY): Since 2020 Bar­bara Wei­gand has united art and fashion by returning to her roots, desi­gning and pro­du­cing her own fabrics. Her idea is the trans­pa­rency – sus­taina­bi­lity pro­ject: She under­stands trans­pa­rency and dis­clo­sure of pro­duc­tion as a qua­lity fea­ture for her sus­tainable pro­ducts, which she pro­du­ces with the sup­port of small busi­nes­ses and manu­fac­tu­rers. As CDO of the high-tech plat­form AMUI, she sup­ports the tra­di­tio­nal craft, which can sur­vive in this way in the future.
Bar­bara Weigand’s first artist edi­tion of her cou­ture series “Easy­glam” was crea­ted in col­la­bo­ra­tion with photo artist Die­mut von Funck, whose high-contrast and color-intensive dou­ble expo­sure pho­to­graphs were trans­fer­red as prints onto fabric. The basic mate­rial is an exqui­site duch­esse from the Spa­nish com­pany Grata­cos, known for their haute cou­ture fabrics. This type of fabric is also cal­led Mikado, the most striking cha­rac­te­ristic of which is its light­ness with a stan­ding feel.

The fine art prints by Die­mut von Funck, also pre­sen­ted in the exhi­bi­tion, are avail­able in a limited edi­tion of 10 copies, each num­be­red and signed by the artist. The prints were pro­du­ced using a nine-color pig­ment prin­ting tech­ni­que on Wil­liam Tur­ner water­co­lor paper, whose fine grain empha­si­zes the deli­cate laye­ring of the dou­ble expo­sures. Glass­less frames made of wenge wood round off the com­po­si­ti­ons as a whole.
The care­ful selec­tion of sui­ta­ble prin­ting paper is clo­sely lin­ked to Die­mut von Funck’s family history. Her mater­nal ance­s­tors include the cul­tu­rally ver­sa­tile paper manu­fac­tu­rer Johann Wil­helm Zan­ders, who took over the Schna­bels­mühle in 1829, a paper mill foun­ded in the 16th cen­tury at the Strund­er­bach in Ber­gisch Glad­bach. The well-known pro­ducts of the com­pany that still exists today include high-quality, quar­rel­some artist papers, which are sold under the name and coat of arms of the Gohrs­mühle, which was bought in 1868.
The artist’s for­ma­tive childhood memo­ries include various types of paper in terms of feel and tex­ture, as well as bota­ni­cal maga­zi­nes, which inspi­red her to put toge­ther her own book­lets with the Zan­ders papers. In 2008 she finally revi­ved her crea­tive streak and com­ple­ted a three-year app­ren­ti­ce­ship at the Pra­gue Photo School in Linz/Austria.
Her double-exposed pho­to­graphs take the viewer into light-drenched sce­ne­ries in parks and gar­dens. The trans­pa­rency and color of the plant motifs are remi­nis­cent of the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of sen­sual nature expe­ri­en­ces in French Impres­sio­nism and Japo­nism. In con­nec­tion with the glossy, reflec­tive tex­ture of the fabrics, the vege­ta­tive image struc­tures appear  vir­tually dema­te­ria­li­zed of bewit­ching effect.
The lyri­cism of Die­mut von Funck’s pho­to­graphs as fabric prints, com­bi­ned with the wide-falling A-line cut with dif­fe­rent rows of box pleats, makes par­ti­cu­larly the “signa­ture skirt” an extra­or­di­nary Gesamt­kunst­werk of this art edi­tion, mea­ningfully sta­ged by fashion pho­to­gra­pher Golda Fruh­mann, who works in Paris and Munich.

After com­ple­ting her law stu­dies in Munich, Golda Fruh­mann pur­sued her pas­sion and stu­died pho­to­gra­phy in Ham­burg. The prac­tical expe­ri­ence with Mar­kus Jans intro­du­ced her to the art of fashion pho­to­gra­phy during her stu­dies. Fruh­mann uses the medium of pho­to­gra­phy to reach people visually and to sen­si­tize them. In view of the fact that her own con­su­mer beha­vior has always been based on Vivi­enne Westwood’s prin­ciple “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last”, the ques­tion „Who made my clo­thes?“  should always be con­veyed through her pic­tures: She demands this trans­pa­rency through her fashion pho­to­gra­phy and encou­ra­ges the viewer to posi­tion him­self with regard to the pro­duc­tion con­di­ti­ons in the fashion indus­try.