Doors and Bags, a concept which blends the heritage of the doors of Dubrovnik with innovative bag design. Designer Renata Debeljak explained more about the project to TCN on January 11, 2016.
PROJECT ‘DOORS & BAGS’
What connects bags and doors?
Photo credits: Renata Debeljak, Miho Skvrce
The past, the richness and uniqueness of individual cities is reflected in their doors. The doors of Dubrovnik, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, tell many stories. Whether they are doors of palaces, castles, gardens, the house of former noblemen or commoners, churches, fortresses, villas, ordinary houses, all of them have something to say about Dubrovnik’s history.
Mostly I am focused on the antique doors inside the ancient city walls of Dubrovnik. As I often pass these historic streets the old doors particularly catch my attention. Although I see the same doors every day I admire them anew, however I will then turn into a street which I do not often use and discover new ones. I think they are unfairly neglected and they deserve better treatment. And many of the passersby do not even really notice them. Old doors attract my attention in different cities and countries that I visit, not only in Dubrovnik. In addition to Dubrovnik, I really admire the old doors with a hint of history in Israel, Morocco, Italy and on the Greek islands.
Doors for me generally have a deeper meaning. I think that their style and appearance tell stories about their owners, their purposes or the cities to which they belong, whilst also hiding secrets and the privacy of those who live behind them. The door is also the space where the known and the unknown met, mark the passage, and also the entry, they are an invitation to a journey into the unknown. Good or bad news is received through the door, guests are welcomed, messages are sent and new ones collected…If we place certain doors in the context of individual cities, especially those with a rich history, such as Dubrovnik, they gain even more importance.
Being part of this City (Dubrovnik is the only city in the world which is spelt with a capital C!) really is a privilege, because the streets of Dubrovnik reveal and conceal inexhaustible treasures of art, and the doors have undiscovered stories to tell. All these doors have tales of an exceptional past, but do not offer all of the answers to the observer. Some are neglected, forgotten, sketchy, dormant, and some have survived through the centuries. But the pain and the dust of the past, and the present, provide the doors of Dubrovnik with additional intrigue and allure.
In addition to frequently photographing these old doors, I sometimes use the doors as a backdrop for the bags which I design. At one point I realised that actually the bags and the doors have, in a figurative sense, a lot in common and that one can draw interesting links between them. Because bags, similarly to doors, communicate to the outside world about the style, the way of life, the profession or philosophy of their owners, but at the same time hide all the things that are carried in them. Their appearance, shape, colour and decoration reveal or conceal who their owners really are and transmit a variety of messages…They never tell us everything about their owners, there are many things we do not know about them as they always carry a ring of secrecy.
Doors and bags want to leave behind them a trail that will last longer than the fast moving and constantly changing fashion trends. Therefore only doors and bags that have some unexplainable code which can pass the test of time will survive, which despite the passing of time will always remain current and interesting in the eye of the beholder.
Since I believe that the links between doors and bags are really unbreakable I have created the project “Doors & Bags.” The first part of this project are photographs with which I want to evoke that connection. This time I have selected the old doors of Dubrovnik, those which are especially beautiful and interesting for me, irrespective of their significance and history, and the project will continue through some new segments.
