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Viktor & Rolf Fashion Artists
NPV - Melburne 21/OCT/2016 - 26/FEB/2016: The spectacular and avant-garde creations of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf are on display in Australia for the first time in an exhibition organised by the National Gallery of Victoria in close collaboration with the designers.
Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists explores Viktor & Rolf’s radical conception of ‘wearable art’. Since forming their creative partnership in 1992, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have gained critical acclaim for their cerebral and witty approach to couture. The exhibition, which coincides with the luxury fashion label’s twenty-fifth anniversary in 2017, explores the elements that make Viktor & Rolf designs unique in the contemporary fashion world.
Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists features some of the Dutch design duo’s most show-stopping and innovative works, drawn from the Viktor & Rolf archive as well as museum collections in the Netherlands.
In addition to showcasing over 40 signature ensembles from the designers’ haute couture and ready-to-wear collections and early installations, displayed throughout two fashion galleries are 21 exquisite dolls, traditionally handmade by a Belgian doll maker each wearing an intricately crafted miniaturised version of a key collection work. The first dolls were created forThe House of Viktor & Rolf (2008, Barbican Art Gallery, London), and the designers have celebrated each major collection since with a new doll dressed in an emblematic design.
Visitors can also access a video gallery of runway footage, illustrating the complexity of Viktor & Rolf’s runway shows, which are often likened to performance art, and experience the mesmerising and intriguing Timepiece installation, specially commissioned for the exhibition. Inspired by Vagabonds, Viktor & Rolf’s most recent haute couture collection, this fantastical work contrasts the antiquated charm of a porcelain doll with the sophistication of twenty-first century animatronics. Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists has been developed in close collaboration with Viktor & Rolf and international guest curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, curator of the blockbuster exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier, shown at the NGV in 2014–15.
The NGV presents a diverse range of programs for Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists, including an opening weekend keynote conversation with the designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. Other program highlights include a range of talks and conversations examining the themes of the exhibition and Viktor & Rolf works. NGV’s popular Friday Nights at NGV program returns to provide social, informal learning and creative experiences for visitors after-hours to Viktor&Rolfover summer.
Some of the pieces that will be exhibited are part of our collection (see the pictures).
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ArtAids
The ArtAids foundation was set up in 2006 at Han Nefkens’ initiative. ArtAids fights AIDS with the power of art as its most important weapon. ArtAids invites leading artists to produce work that is inspired by AIDS and related problems. These works of art are used to raise the public’s consciousness and to encourage their involvement.
Fundació Han Nefkens
The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.
H+F
Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.
