A.D.E.D.’s new drop as a contemplation on the new moods of spring.

We had a chance to catch up with Misha Cozek on the eve of A.D.E.D.’s drop release and reflect on isolation, new relationships, protest, and finding equilibrium.

S.A. I told you I was in India when it all started, cut off from the world, in this hospital, which wasn’t at all like an adventure for spirituality seeking tourists, but constituted a rather tough experience. They’ve worked on my head and my state of mind there and influenced my general understanding of well-being. But the moment I came back, it was a whole new reality, and I had a nervous breakdown for a moment, trying to adapt to it.

And what I got out of it was that it’s essential to stay a human being, whatever that means to you, and check what message you send out to the world with every small step and thought. You either have to be on the right side or the wrong side of things, it’s a tough everyday job, choosing the right side, it takes many sacrifices.

M.C. The tempo of the day has changed a lot now, in everybody’s life, it became the same for every person, there is not a city or speed now. Now that you have stopped, you can think about which side you are choosing, or how to form your relationship with it. But then when you choose the right side, immediately you are faced with the untruthfulness and imperfection of the system. You can analyze it, and it becomes interesting how the outside world, the system, is reacting to a particular problem. And the solutions that they take make you feel so lost, it’s like you give someone a chance again and again and then you understand at some point that they are hopeless.

A.D.E.D.’s new drop as a contemplation on the new moods of spring.

M.C. We had an interesting time as a collective when we started dedicating more attention to the political system in our country and which steps the government takes to make its’ citizens feel protected and comfortable, and we realized there were none. It’s also the times of new heroes, like the N.H.S., that is being honored around the world now. I’ve been thinking a lot about how different our nations are and how different our mentality is. I lived in Britain for a long time, and, in comparison, on a mass level, I feel like our people here are inhuman. There is no unity; they are divided; they hate more that they love.

S.A. Maybe this moment, this total crisis of minds is a good time to turn the clock back. I feel like the relationships have become dearer now and the rare contact that I have with people is usually enjoyable, it has a more profound quality to it somehow. I feel like this could be the right moment for a significant shift in relationships and building a more personal approach. Don’t you feel this new kindness?

M.C. Yes, in terms of personal relationships, the communication that exists now is on an entirely new level. Everyone is united; everyone is paying attention; the time has stopped, you can talk to a person now and hear what he has to say, understand his plans.

S.A. It’s the essential thing I can take out of it as well, everything unimportant has moved out of the pictures; it is all about finding balance now, in my relationships with other people, and my relationship with myself.

Let’s talk about the drop you did this time. What are the first words that come to mind?

M.C. We had a video installation project in mind to accompany the collection, with a human-sized cube, filled with red paint and situated in a field. We wanted to do an installation, shot frontally, and at some point, the cube would break. And there would be a person inside the cube. We wanted to play with the subject of external beauty. We see now that every brand has a target audience, be it intelligentsia or mass market. We understood at some point that we didn’t want to have a target audience, but instead follow this notion that any person who gets in contact with us becomes our target audience. And then we started thinking about what could unite everyone, what people get stuck on and we realized that everyone likes those visual porn videos and with this method we wanted to get the attention of all audience. But beyond it all, we intended to show how this external beauty is a suffocating thing, and how fragile everything is, how pulled down a human being is by the weight of this beauty. Sadly, we couldn’t make it this project happen now. And when we thought about the colors, we thought about the spring, and we wanted to celebrate it.

S.A. And what about this story with banners?

Well, all we are left with now are our apartments, and they have become our little kingdoms. Besides the virus, there is a parallel story about continually being watched, with these new cameras and the police everywhere. And with the banners, we wanted to say that “this is my kingdom, and I can make any statement I like here.” It’s like tags, they don’t carry any political value or message, but as an act, it is an anti-system thing.

When we were shooting at our first banner, six minutes after we put it up, the police cars have arrived.

S.A. Have they come up?

M.C. No, we took the photos as fast as we could and put them down.

S.A. I agree about being watched as a new reality, sometimes it feels like living in a movie. Do you ever feel like that?

M.C. Oh yes.

S.A. But you can also be a screenwriter of your movie.

M.C. And a conductor.

S.A. Oh, I dreamed of becoming a conductor when a was a child. And a tightrope walker. I am learning to combine both professions in my mind now.

M.C. Your mind allows for that.

S.A. I try my best.