Elisa
Van
Joolen
For Invert Footwear Elisa van Joolen turns sneakers from Converse and Nike, among other brands, literally inside out. She fashions new soles out of one dollar flip-flops, while using the soles of the sneakers to create new sandals. Each pair of shoes that results from this process is unique, despite consisting entirely of mass-produced parts.
Van Joolen’s treatment of shoes to create the Invert Footwear collection enables us to look at these shoes with fresh eyes, to see them independently from their original brands and accompanying marketing campaigns. In addition, the inversion process reveals the seams that are normally hidden within the shoes. These seams were sewn by factory workers and in revealing them the role of these workers in the production process is brought to the fore.
The new incarnation of the sneakers emphasizes the handwork that is part of these shoes as well, while de-emphasizing their mass-produced elements. In this way Invert Footwear, like 11”x17” sweaters, creates a space in which new perspectives can emerge, and questions the most common understandings of the fashion industry. What makes one piece of clothing or footwear ‘hand-made’ as opposed to another? And why is one more valuable than the other?
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Photography: Blommers/Schumm
In conversation with Ben Schwartz The Gradient Walker Art Centre, 12.03.2019 (EN)
Elisa (NL / IT) is a designer and researcher based in Amsterdam.
Her approach to clothing design is characterised by strategies of intervention and reconfiguration. Her projects often reflect specific social contexts and emphasise collaboration and participation. They expose relational aspects of clothing and subvert processes of value production.
She teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
FEATURES
Press & Fold Issue #0 The Street
LECTURES
11"x17"
Monday 12.03.2018
Parsons The New School for Design
Paris
France
High on Subversion
Sunday 25.03.2018
FABRICA Circus Festival
Treviso
Italy
EXHIBITIONS
Change the System
Saturday 14.10.2017 till Sunday 14.01.2018
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
Rotterdam
The Netherlands
In No Particular Order
Saturday 21.10 til Sunday 29.10.2017
Van Abbe Museum
Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Everything and Everybody as Material
Wednesday 07.06.2017 till Friday 09.06.2017
Swedish School of Textiles Borås
Textile Museet Borås
Sweden
the Ghost of Weaving
Saturday 15.04.2017 - Thursday 15.06.2017
Onomatopee
Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Preparatory Portrait of a Young-Girl
Wednesday 15.03.2017 till Sunday 07.05.2017
Plato Ostrava
Czech Republic
Wavelength II
Wednesday 08.02.2017 till Wednesday 15.02.2017
The Hole Gallery NYC
USA
Dream Out Loud!
Friday 26.08.2016 - Sunday 01.01.2017
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Dictionary Dressings
Saturday 22.10.2016 till Thursday 12.01.2017
Onomatopee Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Fast Fashion
Wednesday 26.10.2016 - Sunday 26.02.2017
Textilmuseum St.Gallen
Switzerland
Domestic Affairs
UABB Architecture Biennale 2015
Friday 04.12.2015 till Sunday 28.02.2016
Dacheng Flour Factory Shenzhen
China
The Future of Fashion is Now
Saturday 26.03.2016 - Saturday 31.07.2016
OCAT - Contemporary Art Terminal Shenzhen
China
Fast Fashion
Friday 04.12.2015 till Sunday 03.07.2016
Deutsche Hygiene-Museum Dresden
Germany
Dutch Design: Objects that Indicate the House of Tomorrow
Saturday 27.02.2016 till Sunday 24.04.2016
Musue da Casa Brasileira São Paulo
Brazil
Art & Design Biennial
Sunday 10.01.2016 - Tuesday 15.03.2016
West Bund Art Center Shanghai
China
Domestic Affairs
Thursday 24.03.2016 – Thursday 26.05.2016
Fire Station VCU Doha
Qatar
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11″x17″ is an ongoing project, initiated by Elisa van Joolen, that examines and challenges the fashion industry’s prevailing value systems and proposes new methods of production.
The project began in 2013 with a series of conversations with representatives of various fashion brands including G-Star, O’Neill, gsus sindustries, Rockwell by Parra, Converse, Levi's, Denham, moniquevanheist, and Nike. These companies then contributed by donating clothing and footwear in the form of samples, archival pieces and stock. A selection of these have undergone a process of cutting out, reconstructing and printing to become 11″x17″ Sweaters, Invert Footwear and One-to-One garments.
11″x17″ creates a network. It unites different categories of clothing and different values within fashion; an eclectic mixture of mid-market, second-hand, and high-end items.
Thursday 01.09.2016 - Wednesday 30.11.2016
Iaspis, Swedish Arts Grants Committee's
International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists
Stockholm
In conversation with Beata Wilczek from Address - Journal for Fashion Criticism.
The 11"x17" Reader is selected as one of the best Dutch book designs, 2014.
EXHIBITION
Saturday 05.09.2015 till Thursday 15.10.2015
Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam
In conversation with New Ancestors NYC.
The Banality Of Cut And Paste
by Lynn Berger
Picasso did it, Dada did it, and Marcel Duchamp did it, too. James Joyce and T.S. Eliot were famous for it. Hip-Hop artists do it, of course; it’s through them that we first thought to label such practices not just “appropriation”, “quotation”, or “collage”, but “sampling” and “remix” as well. Whatever you call it, though, the basic underlying method is that of the cut-and-paste – and Elisa van Joolen does it, too.
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general: info@11x17.nl
press: contact@schoondenboer.nl
WEBSITE DESIGN
Jakub Straka
TEXTS
Lynn Berger and Ruby Hoette
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Our Polite Society
MANY THANKS
Alexander Rommens, Alexandra Landré, Anne Stooker, Anna van Joolen – Marchesini, Aimée Zito Lema, Bonne Reijn, Chet Burger, Eduardo Leon, Eelco de Koning, Elisabeth Vulsma, Femke de Vries, Guillaume Schmidt, Hanka van der Voet, Jakub Straka, Jason Denham, Jan Schoon, Johanna Muszbek, José Teunissen, Joris Suk, Jelle Bodaert, Jens Schildt, Justus Cohen Tervaert, Laura Grimm, Lynn Berger, Mariette Hoitink, Martijn den Boer, Matthias Kreutzer, Monique van Heist, Mika Perlmutter, Milou Dooijes, Nalden, Pascale Gatzen, Remco van der Velden, Ruby Hoette, Simon Wrainwright, Suzanne de Jong, Tessa Schön, Vincent Vulsma
11”x17” is made possible through the financial support of Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stichting Stokroos and Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.
