The Freedom Collection, 2014

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Posted: March 10, 2015

Where: Festival de Wereld van het Witte de Withkwartier as a part of Roodkapjes programme.
Performers: Joost Bult, Jutu van der Made and Joan Desablens.

The Freedom Collection consists of 3 suits that lock the body into certain positions; a full body strait jacket, a cocoon that traps the body into a posture that allows nothing except the fingers to move and type and lastly a suit that renders the body absurd.

The commercial leftover fabric used to make the collection bears a generic stock photo printed on it depicting feel-good sentiments of ‘freedom’, ‘youth’ and ‘happiness’, the kind that can be attained through purchasing a product. By re-contextualising the fabric, the Freedom Collection literally embodies the paradoxical notion of freedom offered by today’s neoliberal society.

On the night of 13th September 2014 at the Wereld van het Witte de With Kwartier festival, Joost Bult, Jutu van der Made and Joan Desablens animated the struggle. The aim was to find new possibilities by attempting to move within or beyond the restrictions imposed by the Freedom suits. Petr Kazil who was in the audience described it as "a nice combination of a group-problem-solving-session, slapstick, street-act, fashion-show and art-performance".

Photos by Rachel Sender and Hidde van der Lijn.