Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements
Kunsthalle München
February 23 – October 6, 2024

For more than three decades, Dutch fashion artists Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have been exploring with breathtaking virtuosity the boundaries between the worlds of haute couture and art. The self-confessed fashion world outsiders have gained critical acclaim for their unconventional approach to design, technical perfection, and deep knowledge of fashion and art history. Their creations have been embraced by artists such as Madonna, Tilda Swinton, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Doja Cat, and Cardi B and were staged in numerous ballets, as well as in an opera directed by Robert Wilson. Viktor&Rolf. Fashion Statements is the first major retrospective on Viktor&Rolf in Germany. It is developed by the Kunsthalle München in collaboration with the Canadian curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot. He also curated the extraordinary exhibitions of Jean Paul Gaultier. From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk (2015), Peter Lindbergh. From Fashion to Reality (2017), and Thierry Mugler. Couturissime (2020/21) which met with great critical and public success in Munich.

The exhibition will feature some of Viktor&Rolf’s most extraordinary and avant-garde works. Reflecting the duo’s passions, obsessions and singular vision, the exceptional presentation will showcase 100 of their most daring creations many exhibited for the first time from the designers’ own archive as well as important private collections. Also on display will be a selection of their dolls, inspired by antique porcelain dolls, dressed in the designers’ most iconic creations, handmade season after season. Numerous videos, sketches, and works by distinguished visual artists like Andreas Gursky, Inez & Vinoodh, and Ellen von Unwerth will also be featured in the exhibition. The presentation is divided into nine chapters, each of which refers to specific themes cherished by the designers: “Upside Down”, “Fashion Artists”, “Russian Dolls”, “Fashion Statements”, “Dolls”, “Zen Garden”, “Performing Fashion”, “Conceptual Scents”, “Upcycling Couture”, and “On Stage”.

Elaborately animated projections have been designed for the exhibition by the internationally acclaimed visual effect studio Rodeo FX, famous for their work on series like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings, and movies like Blade Runner 2049 or Indiana Jones. “We are thrilled to show a selection of more than 30 years of our work at the Kunsthalle München,” say Viktor&Rolf. “We have always felt strongly about the way museum shows complement our seasonal catwalk presentations. Exhibitions are more democratic than the runway: they allow more visitors, and they last longer. They can show that certain themes recur over the years and put a spotlight onto the sublime craftsmanship that goes into the creation of our pieces.”

Roger Diederen, director of the Kunsthalle, states: “With Viktor&Rolf. Fashion Statements, the Kunsthalle München is organizing the next major haute couture exhibition. I am very excited to be able to present this designer duo from Amsterdam in Munich and thus realize their first retrospective in the German-speaking world. Viktor&Rolf’s innovative creations, which have been inspiring not only the fashion world but also the art scene for 30 years now, will be shown in an unexpected scenography at the Kunsthalle.”

“Renowned for their experimental and conceptual runway presentations and performances, their exquisite craftsmanship, innovative and dreamy silhouettes, sometimes made from tulle or canvases, red carpet or tinkling bells, Viktor&Rolf have been creating unique and groundbreaking wearable art for the past three decades in spectacular style,” explains Thierry-Maxime Loriot, exhibition curator.

Viktor&Rolf’s collections often begin with an abstract idea. The conceptual and technical development of a collection always includes considerations of its final presentation from the very first steps the fashion show. Rather than organizing mere straightforward catwalk presentations, as is usually the case, their défilés tend to become true performances in which they act as storytellers, directors and often as participants.

Early in their careers they worked with vintage fabrics used by Cristobal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, and later on, they referenced not only their own former collections but also their signature motifs, such as ruffles and embroideries and voluminous silhouettes, to create highly unorthodox haute couture as a ‘new beginning’ in patchworks, braids or woven techniques. Viktor&Rolf are renowned for creating juxtapositions of seemingly unrelated elements that result in an expression of surreal beauty. Their collection Fashion Statements (S/S 2019) featured short slogans typically used in social media that were elaborately shaped on magnificent dresses executed in layers of laser cut tulle. Flowerbomb, the name for their famous woman’s fragrance launched in 2005, also plays with contradiction.

Furthermore, the Maison’s other fragrances, such as Spicebomb and Bonbon, echo some of the collections’ concepts as well, celebrating how Viktor&Rolf approach their olfactory development in the same way as their fashion: with meticulous technical refinement. Their affection for the abstract resulted in inspiring collaborations beyond the fashion world, for example, with director Robert Wilson in 2004, when he approached the designers to create costumes for his ‘dance in four parts’ 2Lips and Dancers and Space, in collaboration with the Nederlands Dans Theater or in 2009 for his production of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman), presented at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Blurring boundaries between artistic disciplines is also a recurrent theme within Viktor&Rolf’s collections: In Wearable Art (A/W 2015–16) or Performance of Sculptures (S/S 2016) they were creating extraordinary dialogs between garments and paintings, or garments and sculptures in order to question the relationship between wearer and clothing. Their designs became autonomous pieces, independent from a wearer. Going beyond the pure question of style or the look of the season, Viktor&Rolf’s work has always been about fashion but also constantly a means to express themselves.

Accompanying the exhibition is a comprehensive and richly illustrated publication with introductory essays and an interview with Viktor&Rolf which provides an in depth look at the fashion artists’ contradictory identity that pushes the boundaries between art and fashion, often contrasting romance and power, exuberance and control, classicism and rebellion.

more. www.kunsthalle-muc.de