In September 2021, ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopened its doors after a major revamp and major renovation works. But it had to close again soon, as there were issues with the ventilation. In October 2022, it re-reopened. Thanh asked me to join him on a visit. I was curious to see how different – or not – the museum would be just under a year after my previous visit. 

There are still three main exhibition spaces.

1: Collection presentation

On the ground floor there is the permanent exhibition ‘Collection presentation – Fashion from the MoMu Collection‘. It hasn’t change much compared to 2021, but some artifacts were new. Fashion items from 2022 keep the exhibition up to date. Nice.

2: ‘Exploding Fashion: From 2D to 3D to 3D Animation’

‘Exploding Fashion: From 2D to 3D to 3D Animation‘ by MoMu and Central Saint Martins offers “unprecedented insight into the role of innovative pattern-cutting in key examples of twentieth century fashion design”, the website says.

‘Exploding Fashion: From 2D to 3D to 3D Animation’ is a research project at Central Saint Martins of the University of the Arts London that explores how pattern-cutting in twentieth century fashion can be understood through the practices of making, unmaking and remaking.

“The project ‘explodes’ the mystique of the fashion design process in two ways. Firstly, it deconstructs the myth of the designer as sole creative genius by uncovering the intriguing role of the pattern cutter.”

Secondly, it reverse-engineers five historical designs by game-changing designers who were also innovative pattern cutters, digitally reanimating museum objects as moving images which visually narrate how these things were once made, and how they moved on the body. 

The designers are Madeleine Vionnet (1912-1939), Charles James (1928-1978), Cristóbal Balenciaga (1936-1968), Halston (1957-1983) and Comme des Garçons (° 1973).

This ‘deconstruction’ (MoMu loves the term and uses it a few times) of the design process is an interesting exercise. It also focuses on the craft of fashion. Having an idea is one aspect, turning it into reality is another.

3: Mirror, mirror on the wall

‘MIRROR MIRROR – Fashion & the Psyche‘ is a joint exhibition by MoMu and Dr. Guislain Museum in Ghent. It investigates the interconnections between fashion, psychology, self-image and identity.

“How do contemporary fashion designers and artists challenge beauty ideals? Can clothing protect us mentally and give us strength?”, the exhibition asks.

The exhibition at MoMu puts our personal experience of our bodies centre stage. An unexpected and surprising dialogue between art installations and avant-garde fashion highlights such themes as body dysmorphia, the layered meanings and history of human replicas, such as dolls and mannequins, and the symbiosis between art, fashion and technology in the form of cyborgs and avatars.

Apparel and style do not emerge solely from the heads of well-known fashion designers, but can be created in isolation, in the privacy of someone’s living room or even a psychiatric hospital. 

Garments can send a message or be the fulfilment of deep yearnings, and go on to engage in dialogue with the world of fashion. The Dr. Guislain Museum brings together exceptional artists, each of whom uses textiles to give themselves a place in the world. Their creations might be hidden to the world, or revealed to just a few, but can also be worn with pride on the catwalk of the street.

MoMu presents the work of artists such as Cindy Sherman, Ed Atkins, Genesis Belanger, Hans Bellmer and Genieve Figgis, in dialogue with creations by designers such as Comme des Garçons, Simone Rocha, Walter Van Beirendonck and Viktor & Rolf.

Honestly, we were puzzled by this exhibition. The title is ‘Mirror, Mirror’, but the link with psychiatry is not very clear. Then there is a whole section on fashion dolls and mannequins and it ends with video art. 

The last video artwork , ‘Ribbons‘ by Ed Atkins, at east showed a penis. We love artsy penises. 

So?

You don’t need many hours at MoMu and that’s fine. Not every Museum should be a Louvre or British Museum. In some two hours, you toured the exhibitions.

The current exhibitions were less our cup of tea. Perhaps next time will be a better match. 

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Art and museums in Antwerp

• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Geert De Weyer Gallery, a space for illustrators’ and comic strip authors’ art.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.
• Antwerp’s Middelheim Museum rearranges sculpture park by the end of 2023.