I've begin to learn about Sworn Virgins about two years ago, when I've found a fascinating story about women who become man in the Balkans. This was also the inspiration for my final project, at Cladem, IUAV, a capsule collection, titled Virgin. I have decided to approach the collection questioning gender identities and infused my main inspiration not only on a simply aestetic level, but carried out an in depth research in the tasks such as third sex, female cross-dressing, and gendered dress in western culture.
A sworn virgin, an extremely complex, third sex figure, who incorporates masculine qualities in a female body. “She”/”he” is a fascinating individual, androgyne and aseaxual: a master, a warrior, a virgin.
My project expresses the qualities of these positions, the tension between strength and vulnerability, between freedom and bondage, and the ambiguity of the two realities - male and female. It refers to a person closed up in a shell-like wardrobe, that becomes her destiny, her protection, but at the same time her voice of liberty. I tend to challenge the traditional representation of the female body, experimenting limitless ways of creating future human shapes, new textures and materials. It also can be seen as a creative bricolage, resiulting in an authentically new, genuine, alternative form of human existence outside of mainstream gendered roles, a form of life beyond the two stereotypical gender categories.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/countries-places/other/albania_swornvirgins.html
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