BELGRADE.- After the example of the biggest international museums, the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade hosts one of the most famous world designers – Jean Paul Gaultier, whose exhibition Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All a la Jean Paul Gaultier opened on November 21.
Featuring 38 haute couture wedding garments created in the period 1990-2020, the exhibition Love is Love: Wedding Bliss for All a la Jean Paul Gaultier is the grand finale of the record breaking exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, that, shown at 12 cities around the world, attracted over two million visitors.
Thierry-Maxime Loriot, the 2019 Vanguard Award recipient for his contribution to art and culture, opened the Fashion Wolrd of Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition in 2011 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition then travelled to travelled to Dallas (Dallas Museum of Art), San Francisco (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young), Madrid (Fundación Mapfre), Rotterdam (Kunsthal), Stockholm (The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design), Brooklyn (Brooklyn Museum), London (Barbican Centre), Melbourne (National Gallery of Victoria), Paris (Grand Palais), Munich (Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung), and all the way to Seoul (Dongdaemun Design Plaza).
“I am thrilled to collaborate with the MSUB for what will be not only Jean Paul Gaultier’s first exhibition in Serbia, but also the first haute couture exhibition in that museum! Now, more than ever I feel this exhibition is important for the strong social message of freedom, tolerance and resilience it delivers. This premiere also marks the end of his haute couture career and celebrates how during fifty years, he showed his creative and provocative work with humour, that revealed a humanist vision of society as he embraced all cultures and subcultures without any taboos or judgment to portray us as we are only one, beyond fashion,” said the curator, Thierry-Maxime Loriot.
The world premiere of eight Gaultier dresses, that had never before been included in the exhibition, adds to the prestige of the Belgrade presentation. With his unrestrained imagination, the designer reinterpreted the classical look of the white dress, questioning sexual, ethnic, and religious conventions. The exhibition reflects Gaultier’s dedication to the fight for human rights and promotes cultural diversity.
The exhibition layout was designed by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, with the participation of Makkink & Bey. The mannequins were provided by JoliCoeur International and were animated by Denis Marleau and Stéphanie Jasmin from the Montreal avant-garde theatre company UBU.
“I am excited about the fact that a part of this particular art scene, otherwise not available to the local public, will be coming to Serbia. I am proud of the MoCAB team which, in spite of the current crisis and challenging circumstances managed to show the works by this artist to the Serbian audience, at the times when we need arts the most. It is clear that Gaultier is far more than a contemporary, world famous fashion designer – he is an artist. Gaultier is not a brand, but an idea of equality, support, diversity and tolerance, and if anyone ought to be fighting for tolerance in a society, it should be the artists. Art is comprehensive, free, it allows for emotions, personal expression, provocation, and critical thinking,” stressed Viktor Kiš, Acting Director of the MoCAB.
Hosting the exhibition which places haute couture in the domain of high contemporary art, Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art joins the company of the world museums, such as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Parisian Louvre, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The best indicator of the rising interesets that the museum audiences have for the exhibitions of high fashion 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, overshadowing the immense success of the exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The exhibition will be on display for four months, from November 21 to March 2021, on the fifth floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art. In the rest of the building, the visitors will still be able to enjoy in the revised format of the exhibition Reflections of our time: Acquisitions of the Museum of Contemporary Art 1993-2019.
