"At this point it seems that we are flying over the border between Kazakhstan and China. Sitting by the window, I see an infinite mountain range that unfolds until the horizon. I have to think of Claude Lévi-Strauss, in Tristes Tropiques (1955), who flies over India, comparing the country’s landscape to 'some very old tapestry'. As if from the sky, you could have a glimpse of the threads between the different elements. I wonder if I could infiltrate in this fabric of relations and use it as a mean for collaboration. An Iranian man in his 50’s is seated next to me; he has found an ear for all of his adventurous stories. I started working, listening, collecting.
We will arrive in Shanghai in the early morning, and I will have six months now to explore, research, intervene, document. I know three Chinese words, and I have never been really attracted to this country before. Winning a 'special prize' at a contest in Italy brought me here.
I just graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp with a master degree in fashion design, which helped and shaped my understanding of cultures and crafts, using clothes as tools to further explore problematics of representation, myths, anthropology and visual expression in a broader sense. China seemed a good opportunity to start a new chapter in my personal research."
