21.11.2020
Eight wedding dresses designed by the famous fashion designer showcase during the exhibition “Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All”
Following the example of the world’s most reputable museums, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSUB) in Belgrade will host one of the most renowned fashion designers, Jean Paul Gauthier, whose exhibition Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All à la Jean Paul Gaultier will be opened on November 21.
The exhibition, which will showcase 38 haute couture wedding dresses designed from 1990 to 2020, is the finale of The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk exhibition which attracted more than two million visitors in 12 cities worldwide, breaking fashion exhibition records.
Curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, the recipient of the Vanguard Award for contribution to art and culture, opened The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition in 2011, at Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts, followed by the Dallas Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, MAPFRE Foundation in Madrid, Kunsthale in Rotterdam, Swedish Center for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, Brooklyn Museum, Barbican Center in London, Victoria National Gallery in Melbourne, Grand Palais in Paris, Kunsthale in Munich and Seoul in Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
“I am delighted that we are going to cooperate with the Museum of Contemporary Art from Belgrade on this project, which will not only be the first exhibition of Jean Paul Gaultier in Serbia, but also the first exhibition of haute couture in that Museum. Now, more than ever, I believe that this exhibition is important for the strong social message of freedom and tolerance it conveys. This premiere also marks the end of his career in the world of haute couture and celebrates the way he has demonstrated humor over fifty years through his creative and provocative work, revealing a humanistic vision of society embracing all cultures and subcultures without any taboos or condemnations to portray us as such. as we are beyond fashion,” says curator Thierry –Maxime Loriot.
An exclusive feature of the Belgrade exhibition is the world premiere of Gaultier’s eight wedding dresses that were not part of the exhibition before. With unbridled imagination, the designer gave a new look to the classic white dress, strongly questioning gender, ethnic and religious conventions. This exhibition reflects Gaultier’s commitment to the fight for human rights and promotes cultural diversity.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts created the exhibition in collaboration with the Makkinik & Bay studio. The mannequins were provided by JoliCoeur International, and Denis Marleau and Stephanie Jasmin from the Montreal avant-garde theatre company UBU are responsible for their animation.
“I am exceptionally glad that a part of this contemporary art world, which is not available to the wider audience in our country, is coming to Serbia. I am proud of the MSUB team, which, even in this crisis and complex conditions, when we need the art the most, ensured that we are able to present the work of this artist to Serbia. It is clear that Gaultier is more than a modern world-famous fashion designer – he is an artist. Gaultier is not a brand, but the idea of equality, the idea of support, the idea of diversity and tolerance, and if anyone needs to promote tolerance in society, it is artists. Art is comprehensive, free, it allows emotions, personal expression, provocation and critical thinking “, points out Viktor Kiš, acting director of MSUB.
By staging an exhibition that presents high fashion as supreme contemporary art, the Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art found itself in the company of world museums, such as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The best indicator that high fashion exhibitions are attracting more and more attention from the museum audience is the success of the exhibition Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, which officially became the most visited exhibition in the history of the Victoria and Albert Museum and surpassed the huge success of the exhibition Alexander McQueen; Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All à la Jean Paul Gaultier will be opened four months, from November 21 to March 2021, on the fifth level of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, while the other segments of the Museum still feature the exhibition Reflections of Our Time: Acquisitions of the Museum of Contemporary of Art 1993 – 2019, but downsized.
The exhibition Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All à la Jean Paul Gaultier was realized with the generous support of our sponsors.
You can download the exhibition’s poster on this link – https://we.tl/t-WSKbzeH8dK .