MoMu- Fashion Museum Antwerp opens its doors to 2 new exhibitions alongside an unseen rotation of MoMu’s impressive 35,000 piece fashion collection.
Exploding Fashion: from 2D to 3D animation (8 October 2022 – 05 February 2023)
Exploding Fashion presents a research project by Central Saint Martins, London showcasing pattern-cutting practices of the 20th century, understanding fashion through the process of making, unmaking and remaking.
The study exhibits the reanimated museum objects as moving images, visually exploring how the original designs were once made and how they moved on the body. While offering an analysis on the traditional design processes, the exhibition enters into a dialogue forming new concepts that illuminate haute couture and prêt-à-porter methods for a visually-driven digital age.
The designers presented in Exploding Fashion include Madeleine Vionnet (1912-1939), Charles James (1928-1978), Cristóbal Balenciaga (1936-1968), Halston (1957-1983) and Comme des Garçons (1973-ongoing); and their designs are from internationally renowned collections – including the likes of Palais Galliera (Paris, France), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), and Kyoto Costume Institute (Japan).
Mirror Mirror – Fashion & the Psyche (8 October 2022 – 26 February 2023)
The exhibition comes in collaboration with Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent, displaying an in-depth analysis into the connections between fashion, psychology, self-image and identity which is curated by Elisa De Wyngaert.
Mirror Mirror explores how contemporary fashion designs and artists challenge beauty ideals, presenting how clothing forms a mental strength and identity for the wearer. Investigating the universally shared personal experience of relationship between the body and clothing, visitors are taken on a journey to understand how fashion and personal style can be developed and created in isolation.
Director of MoMu Kaat Debo states “MoMu takes a second start with an ambitious double exhibition in collaboration with our colleagues from the Dr. Guislain Museum in Ghent. This exhibition will advance our research into the impact that fashion has on our society. This time, the body is central, along with how it is portrayed by fashion designers and artists, in the analogue as well as the digital world around us, with its ever greater presence. We display this in immersive scenography, which will hopefully be able to inspire our visitors.”
The work on display includes artists such as Ed Atkins, Genesis Belanger, Hans Bellmer, Sarah Lucas, Paul McCarthy, Tschabalala Self, Cindy Sherman and Yasuyuki Ueno, in dialogue with creations by designers such as Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Molly Goddard, Kenneth Ize, Loewe, Issey Miyake, Prada, Simone Rocha and Walter Van Beirendonck.
MoMu Permanent Collection
For the first time in history, MoMu displays its permanent fashion collection, allowing visitors unlimited access to archival materials and silhouettes, ranging from contemporary fashion to historical clothing, textiles and accessories.
The collection entertains 35,000 pieces, becoming one of the largest and most important collection of contemporary Belgian fashion in the world, showcasing in an annually rotated exhibition that changes through different eras.
A selection of the designers presented in the first collection presentation: Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Stephen Jones, Ann Salens, Yuima Nakazato, Noir Kei Ninomiya, Haider Ackermann, Veronique Branquinho and Patrick Van Ommeslaeghe. The work of students from the Fashion Department are also on show.
