SLAVIC RITUALS

Wedding bouquets collection by RÓBERT BARTOLEN

Florist ⋅ Róbert Bartolen

Photography ⋅ Natália Jablonková

Model ⋅ Baška Bagalová

Assistant ⋅ Evka Barathová

Let’s move over a sun-dried meadow and windswept valleys. Let’s close our eyes and feel the last warm gust of summer. Let’s dive inside, where the essence and identity of each of us springs deep within us. Let’s try to find refuge in our depths by what kind of woman I became and was born to. So that I realise that today I will surrender to only one for life. My body is merged with nature. The heart beats to the beat of a birds song. And my skin is moist like morning grass. The sky reflects in my eyes and I dig through the clay barefoot. How long have I not done this? How long have I not looked inside?

My eyes belong to only one, but the look is looking for something lost.

My name is known, but my feelings are hidden.

My heart is surrendered, but my hands are shaking.

My body is ready to surrender, but my spirit is empty.

My desire is to fly to the sky, but instead, I will lock myself with a promise today.

I open my eyes and lean over the water. I see my reflection and suddenly I see a lot of unanswered questions.

Who am I?

A tear rolls down my cheek and falls to the surface of the lake. It breaks the mirror and I realise I don’t know myself.

I would like to scream. Run, but mainly to say what I have on my tongue, but can’t figure it out.

Who am I?

A wedding as we know it today represents tenderness and purity. It is an image of perfection that is shrouded in a social event. But very often it does not resemble the real image of a woman’s personality, who is dressed in white. The Slavic Rituals collection is based on the strength and inner personality of a woman. To get to know her own personality. And finding herself.

The rituals that a woman once underwent during preparations for a wedding were very often not just of a spiritual nature or a pagan ceremony. What can today’s emancipated woman take from forgotten images and habits? Where is the essence of her personality? And why did the bride today become a woman transformed into average perfection? Why has the wedding bouquet become a matter of trend and copying of uniform creatures? Is it possible to reflect with flowers the inside and essence of every woman? Her roots, from which she came?

Words by Róbert Bartolen