Research laboratory for repairs to Mendit Research Lab
In September 2021, I and my colleagues at the Graduate School of Arts and Design, the Higher School of Economics, merged into the Mendit Research Lab Research Laboratory, inviting fellow researchers and artists to participate. In the first place, lab members focused on the repair of clothing, but decided not to limit themselves to it, especially since the practice of manning extends far beyond the vegetative field: we repair not only a thin dress, but also broken arms, leaking relationships, trauma.
Refurbishment is a form of resistance to decay, patching a hole is a struggle against chaos and entropy. From the very beginning, the Laboratory has sought to combine conventional academic formats (articles, conferences) and actual practices (joint sit-downs to repair clothing) with a practical as research format. Our lab has become a space for research and creation. Today, we can say with full confidence that nothing unites more than a stitched-up hole.
One of the important stages in the development of the Laboratory was the residence at the HES-2 site in the summer of 2022, where we worked with communities, tested different vorkshop formats, and explored with participants various ways to repair clothes.
The next step in the work of the Laboratory was to participate in the public programme of the Jewish Museum and the Tolerance Centre on the occasion of the exhibition «The Feeling of the Home». As part of a series of vorkshops and lectures, we looked at repairs through the lens of the house, memory research, care practices and hospitality.
The first issue of zina was an important intermediate result of Mendit’s work.
