METAMORPHOSIS

The Chiméra book and photo series by Czech photographer Vladimíra Kotra is the result of a unique, close and tumultuous friendship between a photographer and someone who permitted her to document the most vulnerable moments of personal metamorphosis. Chiméra offers an intimate and delicate but also raw look into the unfolding of the male-to-female transgender identity.

Welcome under blades of grass, half-decomposed leaves, all the way to the healthy, fragrant black earth. Another SWARM-made editorial featuring jewells by Martin Grosman and an array of Czech fashion designers will take to the depths of the METAMORPHOSIS theme – insect and its ever-changing world.

Popovy Sisters is a Russian artistic duo of identical twins made of Lena and Katya Popovy. They create meticulously detailed haute-couture dolls and their delicate portfolio features, e.g., a doll commissioned by Grimes and an FKA twigs lookalike.

Czech illustrator Martina Fischmeister let us pull the curtain on the creative process of her dreamy, floaty abstract works that, nearly paradoxically, help her get grounded in reality.

Ernesto Stewart's delightful and cute nightmare fuel of a concept involving a bunch of mutated and traumatized plushies living their best life in a newfound sanctuary convinced us to make a honorary exception by featuring a non-European artist. You'll see why.

Humanity strolls ever deeper down the uncanny valley. A 3D digital being, a singer and songwriter NIVVA, and her occasional dressmaker and 3D fashion designer Žil Julie Vostalová talk about exploring the newly forming “phygital” layer of our reality.

The name AGF HYDRA hides the mysterious, titillating project of sartorial latex designer, artist & researcher Anna Gloria Flores. Her works appear in tongue-in-cheek (or dark) self-directed performance pieces and videos made in collaboration with other artists.

Czech designer Maria Nina Václavková describes her artistic journey towards making her shoewear concepts more sustainable, recyclable and dearer to their wearer.

“It's kinda strange, sometimes,” says Dimitri Litzinger a Münster-based illustrator, about his dreamy vignettes suspended in timelessness and subtle gradients.

A self-described abolitionist of the concept of gendered fashion, Linus Leonardsson creates dystopian glamour collections for future revolutionaries.

Four works of painter Jan Kostohryz accompany a text by writer Timea Crofony, laying bare the reclaiming of one's body and mind after coming to terms with depression and its conventional and alternative treatments.

Experimental fashion design translates into an alter-ego villain performance in the pictures and videos by Korean designer Kim. The mood of her works stands somewhere between sportswear snaps and satire.

Paintings by Russian artist Vladimir Kartashov contain a vision of a certain kind of escapism that feels desired but unavoidable at the same time. We present a selection from two of his collections.

Two video concepts by Veronika Švecová are exploring the possibility of a healing influence of passive video-game spectating and presenting a faux documentary about tiny harmonising organisms that restored the Earth from the impacts of Anthropocene.

Tim Mulder is an accomplished illustrator from the Netherlands, focusing on minimalistic colour palette, surreal comics-like environment, and the power of a clear line.

Polish artist Karol Mietkiewicz, also creating and known under his brand name Charlie Mintson, verges on the edge of sculpture, design and alien armour with his delicate, fluid and orchid-shaped bodices, face masks and headdresses.

Tiny watercolour vignettes based on the style of Persian or Indian miniature paintings offer a glimpse into the parallel world of illustrator Joakim Drescher.

A collection of intricate headdresses by Moldovan fashion and textile designer Otilia Vieru presents a world of individuals dominated and transformed by virtual reality.

A human gets infected by a computer virus in virtual reality and gallery visitors are given the chance to peacefully roam in wheat fields as seductive orcs – two interactive projects by Theo Triantafyllidis both approach a certain kind of metamorphosis from different viewpoints.

Is The Brute also lurking inside you? Painter Petr Nikl and photographer Ondřej Szollos embarked on a journey to lure and woo him out in a one-of-a-kind picture essay.