Κοστούμι και Οικολογία: Οικο-υλικότητα και Οικο-υλισμός στη θεατρική ενδυματολογία

Responding to the environmental crisis, the global theatre scene is increasingly adopting conscious decisions and actions to use environmentally friendly materials in the creation of costumes, in both small- and large-scale productions. The circular economy has been an integral production model of theatrical costuming for centuries. Historically, economic, practical, and other reasons, such as the lack of implementation structures, have resulted in the development of practices of reusing, modifying, and recycling materials and garments to create new costumes, forming a practical self-organized costume ecosystem.
However, despite its topical and urgent dimension, costume research has only recently begun to study sustainability in relation to the costume life cycle – from conception to costume manufacture, costume use/presentation and storage, or further managing them – both on a practical as well as a conceptual and philosophical level. What are the imperatives of a conscious ecological costume creation?
This paper is twofold: On the one hand, it examines the dimensions of contemporary ecological materiality or "eco-materiality" through selected examples of theatrical costumes made of materials that go beyond established traditions. Analysing such examples, the paper aims to examine issues of materiality and sustainability in relation to the performative body, its representation and interpretation, and to discuss the possibilities of defining 'ecological matter' within the artistic practice of costume. At the same time, the paper raises questions about the concept of "eco-materialism" in theatrical costuming. An essentially ecological act of costume requires rethinking the creation of theatrical costumes as a (co)creation of human agents and non-human materials and elements. As will be discussed in the presentation, this requires a critical approach that holistically examines the need to integrate ecological equity into all aspects of costume creation, both in materials as well as in methods and creative processes.