“Forms get fixed and the more they repeat themselves over centuries, they become very fixed. If we can open these up then there is space for life again, also to be generative and to move into.”
Series 001/19: in conversation with Pascale Gatzen
Pascale Gatzen is not someone who you can bind with words. She moves freely across and within spaces of education, pattern making, commoning and compassionate communication. She continues to seek opportunities for and to shape the conditions under which people learn together.
In the '90s, Pascale was a member of a group of fashion designers known as Le Cri Néerlandais (“The Dutch Cry”) including Saskia van Drimmelen, Viktor Horsting, Rolf Snoeren et al. — and the first Dutch designers to present their collections in Paris. Her garments have been included in early editions of Purple Magazine, photographed by Mark Borthwick and presented in spaces of cross-disciplinary dialogue. Alongside a practice of making garments, Pascale’s place in education, aligned on making and situating fashion as an expression of being — has included developing an alternative fashion program at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and she previously led the Fashion Design Master’s program at ArtEZ, Netherlands.
Our conversation dances between generative projects Pascale has contributed to; including The Linen Project, a collective endeavor to reintroduce small-scale local flax cultivation to the Netherlands, and a clothing workshop Pascale facilitated with guards at Art Tower Mito, in Japan. Interspersed, with the acknowledgment of and observing feelings and needs, reflective of Marshall Rosenberg’s teachings of Non-Violent Communication (NVC). Pascale has recognized this practice to be a vital design for human communication, an opportunity to meet each other with empathy and authentic connection.
Pascale makes and wears her clothing.
Interview by Emily Nam