Collection presentation - Fashion from the MoMu Collection
MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp is aiming more than ever to be a dynamic place in the city from its reopening in 2021. A place where fashion can be widely and deeply reflected upon. A safe space where everyone is welcome to explore the philosophy and mechanisms behind fashion’s yesterday, today and tomorrow. To fulfil this role further, MoMu is offering all visitors from September 2021 approximately 800 m² of extra public viewing space.
A new exhibition space on the ground floor presents ‘Fashion from the MoMu Collection’: a permanent display that sheds light on avant-garde Belgian (and international) fashion through silhouettes, imagery and archive material from over 35,000 pieces in the MoMu collection. This gives visitors unlimited access to MoMu, even when the temporary exhibitions are being rebuilt. The collection presentation will rotate every year to display as much of the MoMu collection as possible, from contemporary fashion to historical clothing, textiles and accessories.
With the new collection presentation, MoMu is offering a permanent place for every visitor that is dynamic, surprising and inspiring. Due to a lack of exhibition space, in the past the museum's extensive collection had limited exposure. Today, the renovated museum can give the history of Belgian and international fashion a permanent place. The MoMu collection is continuously enriched as the gaps within the historical collection are filled and creations by young designers are added. Both keep the collection presentation a dynamic and surprising space.
Ceci n’est pas la mode belge
In the first collection presentation, visitors will discover the story and the origins of avant-garde Belgian and international fashion. The exhibition presents clothing and accessories, show invites, and archival footage. An introductory documentary takes a deeper look at the origins of the quality label ‘Belgian fashion’ from the rise of the Antwerp Six in the 1980s. The history of fashion in Belgium cannot be told without the work of the alumni from the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The collection presentation starts from a critical questioning of the contemporary meaning of the label ‘Antwerp’ or ‘Belgian’ fashion.
The world is in transition. As a consequence and extension of this, the MoMu collection is a reflection of a society in flux. The collection presentation therefore does not tell a chronological story, but focuses on the themes and work of designers that are aesthetically and intrinsically connected to the central themes that are interwoven throughout: surrealism, craft, deconstructivism and a predilection for art, history and innovation. MoMu also collects work from Belgian and international designers who studies at other fashion schools or had no training at all. Thanks to the numerous exhibitions held in recent years, many avant-garde creations by international designers – with no direct link to Belgium or Antwerp – have also been included in the collection. This is what makes the MoMu collection the unique, evolving one that it is – and will become.
From students to masters
A selection of the designers presented in the first collection presentation: Dries Van Noten, Martin Margiela, Raf Simons, Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Rushemy Botter, A.F.Vandevorst, Jurgi Persoons, Bernhard Willhelm, Olivier Theyskens, 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 can also be admired. As the presentation changes every year, it will remain dynamic and the pieces on display can be rested after a period in the spotlight.
CATALOGUE
On the occasion of the exhibition, the book ‘Fashion. The MoMu Collection - Antwerp’ will be published by Lannoo, available from September 4, 2021. €59, edition in English and Dutch, 448 pages, hardcover, ISBN 9789401474153
PRACTICAL
‘Collection presentation - Fashion from the MoMu Collection’
From September 4, 2021
MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp, Nationalestraat 28, 2000 Antwerp
T: +32 3 470 27 79 / e-mail: info@momu.be
More info on the exhibition momu.be
Opening hours: Tue - Sun, 10 AM - 6 PM (closed on Monday)
Tickets: tickets.momu.be