The Antwerp Fashion Museum, ModeMuseum or MoMu, presents ‘GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between‘, an exhibition that explores the beauty and complexity of girlhood. How has girlhood been represented? How is it remembered? And how does the idea of ‘the girl’ continue to shape visual culture and fashion?

The exhibition opens on Saturday 27 September 2025 and closes on Sunday 1 February 2026. 

In Western art history, girlhood has often been framed as fleeting and transitional, its representations limited to symbols of virtue and innocence: the girl at the piano, the girl with a kitten, the girl with hands folded neatly in her lap. 

Too often, artworks centring girlhood have been dismissed as sentimental or lacking intellectual weight. ‘GIRLS’ challenges this view, showing how girlhood can be a lens through which to remember, imagine, and reshape cultural narratives.

The exhibition brings together visual artists, fashion designers, photographers, costume designers and filmmakers, from Edgar Degas to Sofia Coppola, from Louise Bourgeois to Chopova Lowena, Juergen Teller and many more. 

It is an interdisciplinary and inclusive project, created in dialogue with teenagers today and embracing LGBTQIA+ youth. By weaving together art, fashion and culture, it highlights how representation and storytelling shape visibility – and futures.

Curated by Elisa De Wyngaert, with Claire Marie Healy as guest curator for film, ‘GIRLS’ features exhibition design by Janina Pedan and graphic design by Paul Boudens.

Opening Weekend on 27 and 28 September

The exhibition launches with a festive opening weekend on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September. Be among the first to explore ‘GIRLS’ and take part in a programme of free activities for all ages.

Visitors can join walk-in and family tours, craft friendship bracelets with loved ones, and treat themselves to magical nail art – all while discovering the exhibition’s evocative worlds of rebellion, tenderness and imagination.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• ANTWERP | Museum Plantin-Moretus highlights 300 years of women’s stories in ‘Women’s Business / Business Women’.
• Antwerp fashion museum MoMu will mark 40 years of The Antwerp Six with exhibition.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh opens exhibition ‘Public Favourites’, from Mad Meg to Delft Blue, look at art through other people’s eyes.
• ANTWERP | Museum Night 2025 on Saturday 2 August.
• ANTWERP | Middelheim Museum celebrates 75 years with a summer full of new ways to experience the art park.
• M HKA 2025 |​ Bruno Zhu – Panamarenko – ‘The Situation is Fluid’ – Today’s Place – Hugo Roelandt.
• ANTWERP | ‘These Branching Moments’ – ‘.tiff 2025′ – ”OM/MOTHER’: 3 new exhibitions at FOMU, from 28 June 2025.
• ANTWERP | ‘Panamarenko. Infinite Imagination’ exhibition until 4 May 2025 at KMSKA.
• ANTWERP | ‘Compassion’ in the MAS: the many faces of compassion.
• 2025 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2025 at Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA): René Magritte, Marthe Donas, Panamarenko, Hans Op de Beeck.
• ANTWERP | Graphics Museum De Reede ft. Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops and Albrecht Dürer.
• ANTWERP | Rubens Experience and Rubens Garden at Rubenshuis.
• Antwerp will have a new Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp M HKA.
• ANTWERP | Innovations in the Middelheim Museum provide a completely new visitor experience.
• A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.