04.10.2025 – 01.03.2026
When second-hand clothing first found its way to Ghana in the 1970s, the people living there could not believe that such high-quality garments had been discarded and therefore assumed that the owner had died. These items were called ‘Obroni wawu’, which is the Ghanaian term for ‘dead white men’s clothes’. Addressing the issues of neocolonialism, identity and the value system of the Western world, multidisciplinary artist Jojo Gronostay founded his fashion label ‘DWMC’ – ‘Dead White Men’s Clothes’ – and created a collection from used garments that he sourced at the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana – one of the largest trading centres for second-hand goods – and reintegrated them into the Western context, emphasising that this was an art project.
The prints on display in the exhibition curated by Marlies Schöck document the floor shots of the trading centre taken with a hand scanner. When it rains, clothing is thrown onto the paths to absorb moisture and mud, making walking in parts of the market unsafe and unstable. The clothing, which soon takes on earthy tones, is in a state of transition – no longer wearable, but not yet completely gone, no longer justifiable, but not yet discarded. The intertwined search for the identity of object and human being meanders between the levels.
Jojo Gronostay – The Elephants
04.10.2025 – 01.03.2026
studio
Neue Galerie Graz
Joanneumsviertel
8010 Graz
www.neuegaleriegraz.at
