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MA Communication Design 03 × Jenny Bergström

Donika Rexhepi

«The Freedom of Being»

Images can be used like words, we can talk with them. We tend to remember images better than words and when they are re-produced they become a form of information, moreover our society becomes increasingly captivated by them. However images cannot tell the whole story, they can only take a small bite out of a big story. The meaning of an image can be changed according to what you see beside it or what comes after it (Berger, 1972).

Time travel This project started with focus on the way women were pictured in a specific society and a specific time, but in fact this topic is important in all societies at all times.

In Albanian culture, Kanun (the code of Lek’ Dukagjini) is the body of “customary law” under which Albanians have conducted their lives. Kanun sets up the rules, upon which the culture is based, focusing on the concepts of honor, hospitality and trust. The laws of the Kanun served for more than five centuries as the foundation of social behaviour and self-government for the clans of Northern Albania.

Kanun portrays a patriarchal society based on male predominance, allowing women very limited rights and representation in public and daily life. According to the rules women did not have the possibility to influence their situation. A woman could not decide on her own whom she would marry, a girl had to have a high personal reputation and was suppose to be “untouched” and on top of this only the sons were recognised as heirs. So basically this book aimed to shut women’s voices down without any consideration.

Through modified pictures and kinetic typography my designs portray women from different time periods in history who are wearing the traditional clothing in unexpected contexts. The posters bring these women to places that nobody would ever picture them to go and offers them, if only for a moment, the freedom of being.