Belonging: A New Collection Exploring Mixed Heritage by Alessia Bruges

Alessia Camoirano Bruges was born in Italy in 1994. Her mother is Colombian and she currently lives in London and graduated at the University of the Arts London with first class honours. She lived in more than 10 cities and each one has inspired her in a different way. Being able to live different cultures, listen to many stories and learn multiple languages influenced deeply the person she is today and her art.

We had a chance to learn more about Bruge’s fantastic new collection, Belonging, which explores her mixed heritage below.

Alessia Bruges: “Colours always had deeper meanings and for centuries, humans experimented with it and understood that each colour has a meaning which is often tied to emotions. As human beings, we experience a multitude of emotions and experiences through our life such as love, belonging, trauma, healing and my mission is to portray these experiences and emotions as abstract images and texts as well as research their meaning with a focus on colour.”

“My new collection, Belonging, explores the theme of belonging in relation to people, places and things. It’s an intimate and vulnerable collection.

Belonging is one of the most important human experiences and fundamental for our identity. I started researching what belonging means and how important it is. The feeling of belonging, wanting to fit in, find your place, people and roots.”

“Researching I found that belonging is a defining need for our identity which helps coping with intense emotions, shapes our social identity, the idea of self, health and so much more. Belonging is one of the most important human experiences and needs alongside Love.

When I started this collection about belonging I had to think a lot about what does it mean to me being mixed race, what culture, country, religion, language do I belong to? What places really have impacted me and how does my heritage affect my identity?

I often felt I did not belong to one or the other. I felt that I belonged to all them and none at the same time. It was confusing, but once I understood and accepted that many people have the same experience and my adaptability and resilience also stems from being mixed I was able to love myself even more. It was very powerful to reflect on it because I was able to embrace fully who I am and stop taking for granted my heritage.

All these places, cultures, languages make me who I am and I found my home, in my body.”

“I spent most of my childhood in different places around the world, my father was a business traveler and so we followed him everywhere. I remember vivid images of small houses in the desert, a cottage in Tunisia, my little dog in Ecuador, the cold of Denmark and lots of parks. Our base was in Cogoleto, a small town on the Ligurian Riviera in Italy.

I spent the days admiring the sea in its immensity above the hill. My mom is Colombian and every winter or summer we went there for a month. After my parents' divorce, my mom met someone and so we moved, my heart was broken. After long years of battles, misunderstandings, I decide to move to London. Place where I live and create.”

How has being mixed impacted you creatively?

Being mixed impacted my whole life since I can remember. Creatively, I can remember the first time I tried to draw myself and I ended up creating my own colour because I literally could not find one for my skin tone. Looking back at it now, I notice how my whole life I tried to create a place for me, something that would fit me, represent me.

My body, mind and soul are a mixture of different cultures, perfumes, languages, landscapes, food, history, trauma and healing. Therefore my thoughts are not just in one place, but many at the same time, what inspires me to create doesn’t solely come from one established source but more often than not; I am inspired by all the diversity that makes me who I am.

I’ve had many difficulties trying to pin down just one topic to explore, just one place etc but the moment I accepted that I don’t have to be labelled and defined by just one thing; that was the moment that my creativity was really set free. Being mixed is what inspired my latest collection about Belonging, because as the name suggests, I felt the need to understand creatively where I belong.

Do you have any advice for mixed creators?

My advice for mixed creators would be to just accept who you are, find your roots and delve deep into them. Understand the history that runs in your blood and be inspired by your own identity. I acknowledge how confusing and hard it can be to be torn in between many cultures, each one with its own history. But the moment you accept that there is so much strength, power and wisdom in coming from many places, that is the moment that you acknowledge your own identity. Bringing clarity to your own work and unleashing creative power.