Dresses I Haven’t Worn – Magda Moskwa

Dresses I Haven’t Worn is Magda Moskwa’s second exhibition at lokal_30. It’s also the first comprehensive survey of her work with textile, which embraces textile print design and sewing garments. This vital but definitely more seldom showcased avenue of the artist’s practice is pursued on a par with her painterly and sculptural work. In 1996, Moskwa received her diploma from the Władysław Strzemiński State Higher School of Visual Arts in Łódź, where she had studied at the Faculty of Textile and Fashion: Department of Textile Print. The spirit of Łódź fashion and textile designers has been hovering over her work, but without determining it excessively.

Dress design has always been in my mind. It can be seen as a record (much more so than my paintings) of my changing female emotions over the years. Dresses have always appeared in my paintings, even though I’ve never worn them (perhaps to substitute real ones).The artist explains. The dress is a disciplining tool, it limits your freedom of motion. The dress squeezes your body to fit into a beauty standard and exposes it for male gaze. By rejecting this dress, you are also rejecting patriarchal frames that restrict and rigidly define womanhood.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

At the heart of Moskwa’s work sits the human being and their in-depth portrayal. The clothing helps them to be more defined: sometimes it corsets them, sometimes it becomes their second-skin. But it’s always about something. In 1995, Moskwa created a painting with the inscription “Nomana I know Nomana you know and a white dress”, and the same year made her first garment-objects, including said white dresses. Over the years, a collection of garments has evolved. Some of her works resembled clothing pieces, as if they were anticipating their release. “The garment-objects I sew are a form of portrait, something of a ‘mental uniform’, an ‘imprint’ of human personal aura”, Moskwa states.

Clothing preserves memory, “it carries traces, scents, shapes left by the body”, while making human mind and soul materialise, becoming a second skin. The garment structure imposes proper posture and gives the body form. “My garments, which in the course of time began to adopt the form of stiff corsets, were also intended to express and, in a sense, convey and stimulate specific mental states”, Moskwa emphasises.

Garment-objects of Moskwa’s design are characterised by the use of austere fabrics; their forms are shaped by resewing, turning inside-out, draping, and deconstructing the artist’s worn-out clothes. They resemble straitjackets or uniforms, but are not functional – their structures veil and stiffen the body. They can be made to look uniform by adding accessories like a bathing hat.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa, “Dresses I Haven’t Worn”, exhibition view, photo: Bartosz Górka.

Magda Moskwa studied at the State Higher School of Visual Arts (PWSSP) in Łódź, where she received her diploma in 1996 from Prof. Maria Zielińska’s Decorative Print Studio. She designs clothing, works in painting and sculpture, as well as creating unique pieces of clothing. Jan Cybis Award winner in 2020. Winner of the Guarantee Culture Award 2015, and the City Art Gallery in Lodz. Her works belong to the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, City Art Gallery in Łódź, Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Łódź “Signs of the Times”, Regional Collection of the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art in Szczecin, and private galleries.