MoMu is looking for a production coordinator to join the MoMu-team and to manage the production of the scenography of its upcoming exhibitions.
Click here for the details and to apply (attention: text is only available in Dutch).
MoMu is looking for a production coordinator to join the MoMu-team and to manage the production of the scenography of its upcoming exhibitions.
Click here for the details and to apply (attention: text is only available in Dutch).
From October until January 2012, FoMu, the photo museum in Antwerp organized an exhibition at its Gallery on Visionaire, in collaboration with MoMu since both museums have a substantial collection of Visionaire magazines. The exhibition is closed since a few weeks now, meaning that the Visionaire copies can be consulted again in the MoMu library.
Visionaire is the ground-breaking New York publication about fashion and art, founded in 1999 by Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos. The magazine appears three times a year in a limited numbered edition. Every copy is a collectors item, since all the editions contain exclusive collaborations and formats. This makes the magazine cherished by collectors, libraries and museums all over the world.
The MoMu library is the proud owner of 24 copies of Visionaire, such as edition 48: ‘Magic’, which features a 18-karat gold Alhambra charm by Van Cleef & Arpels on a silk ribbon embedded in the case. The inside has 25 lenticular cards with moving images. Or what abot edition 56 ‘Solar’? The all-white cover may look interesting just as it is, but when exposed to direct sunlight, the cover turns into a colourful spectacle, realized thanks to Photochromic Plastisol Inks. Another edition we are proud to have in our collection is issue 58. ‘Spirit’, published in honour of Alexander Mc Queen. The pages of this issue are embedded with wildflower seeds. When planted, watered, and given sun, the pages blossom. The case is wrapped in a Mc Queen metalized brocade from his Spring/Summer 2010 show.
Words by Dorien Swerts, intern at MoMu
Mairi MacKenzie, lecturer at GSA and curator of the Dreamsuits exhibition at MoMu Gallery and author of ‘Dreamsuits: The Wonderful World of Nudie Cohn’, will present a lecture on this charismatic figure on February 29th at the Mackintosch Lecture Theatre in the Glasgow School of Art. Under consideration will be Nudie’s biography, his relationship with his famous customers, the evolution of his style, as well as his legacy within contemporary culture.
The Dreamsuits exhibition at the MoMu Gallery is still open to the public until February 19th.
Le Musée des Tailleurs Illustré, Journal des Modes pour Hommes, Dames et Enfants, F. Ladevèze, 1875
“Have you ever tried to rescue clothes from dust and extreme old age?
The 19th century costume plates are yellowing and aging disgracefully. Historical and contemporary clothes from the most fashionable of 1875: blue, white, grey with ruches, puffs, fringes, with bows and ribbons for women and men! Oh, they look lively those dashing men and lovely ladies, dressed in their finery ready for the masquerade ball. But they have been printed on less quality paper. Around the edges the paper crumbles and cracks easily. Every now and then a ‘dog-eared’ corner breaks off unapologetically. Every imperfection, big or small, is a big problem.
Le Musée des Tailleurs Illustré, Journal des Modes pour Hommes, Dames et Enfants, F. Ladevèze, 1875
Yet these documents from Parisian tailor, F. Ladevèze, must be cleaned and preserved:
The biscuit colored cleaning powder breaks down under a light brush of the hans as the dirt transforms it to a dull grey ash. It’s not easy to lightly brush the dirty crumbs away. Not even with the specially designed brush made from Chinese white goats hair and encased in a bamboo handle, with sharp flicks it brushes the aged brown paper.
It often takes a second attempt at brushing and rubbing, sometimes even a third valiant effort, to rid the page of 140 years of dirt. Once as clean as possible the print goes into acid free tissue paper, each one separated from the next. The table is cleaned and I am ready to continue.
Le Musée des Tailleurs Illustré, Journal des Modes pour Hommes, Dames et Enfants, F. Ladevèze, 1875
Once scanned, the prints finally come to rest, to be rediscovered in possibly another century. When I arrive home I brush the last of the rubbings and crumbs from my hair and clothes, and am clean of the historical reminders until the next time.”
Maria Sermeus, volunteer MoMu-Library
The exhibition ‘Walter Van Beirendonck – Dream The World Awake’ is going into its last days this month. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to discover this unique retrospective! The exhibition is open until February 19th!
German ELLE magazine did a special on fashion curators for their February 2012 issue, selecting 6 curators worldwide responsible for the most visually inspiring exhibitions of the last years! MoMu is very happy that our director Kaat Debo was featured together with Valerie Steele from FIT New York, Pamela Golbin from Musée de la Mode et du Textile Paris, Oriole Cullen & Sonnet Stanfill from V&A London and Akiko Fukai from Kyoto Costume Institute. (photo Verhüllungskunst, ELLE Germany, February 2012 (c) ELLE)
Verhüllungskunst, ELLE Germany, February 2012 (c) ELLE
Verhüllungskunst, ELLE Germany, February 2012 (c) Elle
Verhüllungskunst, ELLE Germany, February 2012 (c) Elle
Happy New Year! Looking forward to welcome you at our upcoming exhibitions in 2012!
MoMu and BEElite present Walter’s Wonder Wall, a 60-meter-long construction made out of high-quality honeycomb strong-boards, which is the central focal point in the Walter Van Beirendonck: Dream The World Awake exhibition. The Wonder Wall brings together the diverse themes that have inspired Van Beirendonck’s work and are covered by the exhibition. It is, as it were an enlargement of Van Beirendonck’s own sketchbooks and resource scrapbooks.
Throughout his collections, Walter Van Beirendonck has worked with innovative and very high-tech materials, or used existing materials in ingenious ways. For this reason, MoMu was searching for a highly unusual material for the exhibition design. BEElite is unique in Belgium as a producer of honeycomb strong-boards, which can be beautifully finished and has the advantage that it can be printed on all surfaces, making it possible for us to translate the graphic character of Van Beirendonck’s work and the collage-like effects of his sketchbook onto the wall. In addition to the images, slogans and words, also display cases with objects from contemporary art (Kelley, McCarthy, Mapplethorpe, etc…), fashion (Mr. Pearl) and ethnography (the Museum of Ethnography in Antwerp, the World Museum in Rotterdam and the Musée International du Carnaval et du Masque in Binche) are also shown. Finally LCD-screens incorporated into the wall present films of Van Beirendonck’s fashion shows.
Gram Parsons (1946-1973) was a pioneer within the history of American music. With his groups The International Submarine Band, The Byrds and, in particular, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram fused his love of country music with rocj, soul and blues to articulate a new musical genre, country-rock (an epithet he allegdly disliked preffering to use the term ‘Cosmic American Music’).
Gram’s louche stance, rakish body, long locks and androgynous good looks ran counter to the usual connotations of country music and he provided a prism through which it could be viewed and appreciated afresh by new generations of music fans. During his short life Gram enjoyed little commercial success but this belies the huge influence that his haunting and beautiful music has had upon the generations that came after him. As his friend and collaborator, Keith Richards noted, “His actual output -the number of records he made and sold – was pretty minimal. But his effect on country music is enormous. This is why we’re talking about him now”.
Belgian allstar band band The Cowboy Angels (with members of The Seatsniffers, The Soul Messiahs and many other great nads) pay their respects to this “father of country rock” with a tribute concert in De Roma on Thursday, January 19th.
(text on Gram Parsons by Mairi MacKenzie, curator of the exhibition Dreamsuits. Designs by Nudie Cohn, the Rodeo Tailor – featuring the collection of Bobbejaan Schoepen at the MoMu Gallery.)
MoMu+Friends is the new organization of friends of the MoMu. Friends of the MoMu have a heart for fashion, cultural heritage, innovation and creativity, and they help the MoMu in developing a rich and varied museum program.
From the beginning, the Fashion Museum adopted a dynamic approach that goes far beyond the static character of the average museum. The MoMu presents ever-changing theme exhibitions about a designer or a subject related to fashion, in an exhibition space that is newly adapted for every different exhibition. Because of the Fashion Museum’s innovative exhibition policy, refreshing new design, outstanding publications and through research, the Fashion Museum almost immediately won worldwide fame, initiated and supported by the Province of Antwerp.
The Fashion Museum needs your support in order to guarantee continuity in our fashion heritage. By becoming a Friend of the MoMu, you support the Fashion Museums vision and help achieve the objectives of its Friends, while enjoying many advantages and remaining closely involved with the activities of the Fashion Museum and the Antwerp fashion scene. Become a Friend of the MoMu and step into this exciting story.
More info on MoMu+Friends and the formulas: http://friends.momu.be
Wednesday November 23rd will be marked in the MoMu agenda as very special day where we had the honour to welcome two special guests at the Walter Van Beirendonck: Dream the World Awake exhibition!
In the morning we received British designer Paul Smith who arrived in Antwerp the day before to present his new book ‘Notes’ and ‘Gentleman Designer’, a new Arte documentary providing insight into the playful and creative world of Paul Smith.
In the afternoon Walter gave a private tour to the French artist Orlan, who was also in town for her upcoming expo in 2012 at the M HKA!
In July 2003, the film Made in Hollywood: A Tribute to Nudie by photographer Craig McDean and art director Bill Doig, premiered on SHOWstudio. The film features the model Amber Valetta styled in an androgynous manner, with slicked back hair, bleached-out eyebrows, wearing various Nudie outfits, and is soundtracked by The Flying Burrito Brothers song Wheels. The other star of the film is a Nudie car which the model gets into and drives. The camera lingers over the details of the vehicle and the bleached out footage adds a dreamlike quality to what is an already incredible project.
