Federico Protto

Federico Protto

I Step into the unknown. We created our own rules and lived far away in the wilderness, we didn’t care much about Society and civilization to sing and evoke the good spirits, to tell the future, to give advice, to teach new rituals. My uniform, I put it on to evoke ghosts, to feel more inside the element, to understand more about the past and the present and the future. I come from different places, I am a traveler, a hunter, a collector.

The main inspiration is the journey to my birthplace Montevideo, Uruguay in January 2016 for the first time after 12 years. This return led me to question the idea of origin and destination: Where am I from? Where am I now and where am I going?

 

What at first seems profane resulted in a very intense and manifold research and chain of associations. Looking into the traditional, historical and ethnical fashion of my birthplace suggested to work with the cowhide as a main material and the Gaucho – an archetype of a South American persona – in a figurative and also abstract manner.

 

Unlike the North American cowboy who quickly turned into a character of mainstream pop culture, the gaucho still fulfills the picture of a noble but free man living in harmony and love with nature, similar to a shaman. The cow in mythology symbolizes the sky and fertility but also works as representative of Heimat up until this day.

Utopian shaman of the digital times

Spiritual topics and elements are reoccurring and omnipresent in my whole work, it is my goal to find pictures, techniques and situations to provide the carrier of the garments the possibility to evoke those valuable spiritual states of mind in any situation.

 

I see my garments more as energetic artifacts, the person wearing them as Utopian shaman of the digital times. Looking into a more tolerant and bright future I bent and twisted the over stylized masculinity of the Gaucho into a gender fluid appearance.

campaign
photography anna-sofie lugmeier
model diana barbosa gil
diana is looking into an artwork from the series ‘envelopes I-IV’ by lukas maria kaufmann

lookbook
photography zentrale digitale werkstätte fotografie, die angewandte
assistance janina weißengruber
hair & make-up alexandra elena
sunglasses: federico protto x silhouette eyewear
sunglasses assistance noemi polo
sandals assistance karolina jurikova
moels sofie anna paul shaquil

show
photography ugo camera for modalisboa
music mix stefan cantante