The 2030 Agenda, pinned to the sleeves of a kimono and a bata de cola

A tangle of plastic wraps and rises from the head of one of the mannequins.

Like a whirlwind, in different shades of blue, the structure ascends towards the sky, in the form of a large drop of water, a bubble;

to then descend in the form of a pipe and surround a large sea, where a fish lives.

This allegory is the headdress that accompanies a suit, in ecru, with kimono sleeves and flamenco ruffles on the right leg, entitled

“I was inspired by the African women and girls who carry drinking water in vessels that they carry on their heads.

It represents the source of life and mother nature, ”explains the artist Veredas López, along with her work, in Antiquarium, an archaeological museum in the subsoil of the Metropol Parasol in Seville.

'Water, mom!', one of the works in the exhibition 'From Spain to Japan, a journey through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals', directed by the designer Manuel Fernández, in Seville. PACO PUENTES (EL PAÍS)

The piece

a jumpsuit made with recycled materials from the bottom of the oceans, which combines fashion and the environment, goes much further.

It also represents Sustainable Development Goal number 6 –Clean Water and Sanitation–, within the exhibition

, directed by designer Manuel Fernández.

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Sustainable Development Goals

The also director of the Fashion Art Institute has brought together twenty Spanish and Japanese artists to intervene in costumes that are inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an exhibition that fuses art, fashion, dance, digitization, sustainability and inclusion.

It was inaugurated this past Tuesday in Seville and can be seen until February 6, and then it will travel to the Kobe museum, in Japan, between March 15 and 27.

The designer, Manuel Fernández, next to the works present in the exhibition 'From Spain to Japan, a journey through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals', in Seville, on February 1. PACO PUENTES (EL PAÍS)

To shape this campaign to raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda and its objectives, Manuel Fernández has created a collection in which each piece is a mix between a kimono and a bata de cola, which he himself has named the

.

“I think we have found the perfect fusion”, explains the designer, pointing to the ruffles and wide sleeves of one of his creations, the one entitled

, by students of FSG College Koriyama,

that symbolizes SDG 15 –Life of terrestrial ecosystems–, which will later be used by the dancer Begoña Castro, to fuse butoh dance and flamenco, accompanied by the guitar of Emilio Caracafé, and thus inaugurate the exhibition.

"I want to help, through two disciplines such as art and fashion, to penetrate these messages, which I consider to be languages ​​that people pay more attention to," the author reflects.

“Each of the goals within the SDGs concerns us all, we cannot look the other way,” adds López, next to her

169 goals in 17 large sections, which since September 2015 replaced the Millennium Goals and with which they want to achieve commitments in the areas of human rights, the environment, hunger and poverty, among others, -beyond the symbolic gesture of carrying a multicolored pin on the lapel – that materialize before 2030.

Fusion between cultures, fashion and SDGs

Between the ruffles of the tailed robes and the wide sleeves of the kimonos appear fish, which represent animal life;

painted tents, which symbolize health and well-being, but also photographs of the neighborhood of the 3,000 homes, which make up the dress that shapes SDG number 1 −End poverty− of Anuca Aísa, in which exclusion and hunger.

Another fusion that joins the choice of these two garments, also linked to the twinning of the two cities, Seville and Kobe, in which the designs can be seen.

More elements that intertwine Japanese and Spanish culture, a union that dates back to 1614, when a Japanese delegation disembarked in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, to establish diplomatic and commercial relations, and that reached Coria del Río, where its inhabitants still they keep the surname Japan as a memory of that journey.

“In my suit there is a mixture of sea, oxygen and the fusion of the coast of Japan and Spain.

What influences us in our experiences, we transfer to nature and form an identity;

if with our consumption we dirty the water, that is how it is reflected in the ink and the fabric”, explains Keiko Kawabe, a Japanese woman living in Seville, together with her work

, which materializes SDG number 12: responsible production and consumption.

Manuel Fernández, who since 1998 has incorporated his most supportive facet into his work as a designer, has relied on the women who are part of the inclusive workshops for victims of trafficking (Apramp) to make the dresses, and with recycled materials from the hat workshop of Vivas Carrión Artmilliners, in charge of the headdresses of the dresses.

New formats: Metaverse and NFT

After the stop of the exhibition at the Kobe museum, in Japan, back in March, it will be time to go one step further and make this exhibition one that also has a place in the virtual world.

The dresses will be digitized and tokenized in NFTs and can be visited virtually through Metaverse, the new Facebook platform.

This is the first exhibition that combines the analogical with the digital universe, carried out with the collaboration of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).

“Sustainability and accessibility also mean that people can visit it after it is no longer a physical event”, explains Nuria Lloret, professor of Electronic Administration at the UPV and member of Atenea, a research group that makes women visible who work in the world of art and technology.

She, along with two other colleagues, has generated this parallel universe where you can see the collection and has made one of the pieces.

The work, entitled

, represents SDG number 17 - Alliances to achieve the goals -, has a QR code drawn on the back of the kimono to access this virtual universe, where the collection will remain forever.

"We women have the ability to integrate, like SDG 17, to fulfill them all, hence the name of the work, the one that best represents us, as a group of women and technologist artists."

“Humanity is facing its own Hades by destroying the planet, but we have to be optimistic because we have time to change our destiny and, like Orpheus, return to the light”, reflects Pedro Paricio, one of the most promising Spanish creators International, in the explanation of his intervention to the suit entitled

, which represents SDG 10 -Reduction of inequalities-, which can be read by bringing the mobile closer to the code that is next to its creation.

A light that swirls between the sleeves of the kimonos and the ruffles of these batas de cola.

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