For the first time in the U.S., Viktor & Rolf’s work will be the focus of a museum exhibition.
“Viktor & Rolf. Fashion Statements” will debut at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta this fall, following its inaugural run at the Kuntshalle Munich last year in Germany. There will be upward of 100 examples of their daring designs, showcasing the Dutch fashion artists’ dexterity in creating haute couture that challenges what constitutes art. For 30-plus years, they have been creating avant-garde and thought-provoking work.
As was the case with the show in Germany, they are working with the curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, who has set up nine chapters — “Fashion Artists,” “Russian Dolls,” “Fashion Statements,” “The Dolls,” “Zen Garden,” “Performing Fashion,” “Viktor & Rolf on Stage” and “Upcycling Couture.” A ninth chapter that will feature commissioned work and has yet to be revealed will be announced in the coming months. The exhibition will debut on Oct. 10.
To give visitors further insight into their creative process beyond the garments that will be displayed from more than 30 of their collections, there will also be some of their “works-in-progress dolls.” Inspired by antique porcelain dolls, these figures will be dressed in miniature versions of their handmade designs. Animated projections will also be splashed in the galleries, thanks to the special effects envisioned by the studio Rodeo FX, which has pitched in for such series as “Stranger Things,” and “Game of Thrones,” as well as the film “Blade Runner 2049.”
Imaginative, humorous and highly technical, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren started their luxury house in 1993. While they have participated in numerous exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kyoto Couture Institute, the Musée de la Mode et du Textile and other museums, this will be the first to solely spotlight Viktor & Rolf Stateside. Early on in their career, the design duo worked with vintage fabrics that were used by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, and later they incorporated oversized bows, ruffles, embroideries and unexpected silhouettes into their collections. Their spring 2019 haute couture collection, “Fashion Statements,” highlighted social media-friendly catch phrases that were combined with elaborately shaped dresses made of layers of tulle.
Loriot said, “People ask me the same question all the time, ’Why have fashion in a museum?’ Viktor & Rolf are exactly the answer to this question. When you see the work, it’s not about trends, the flavor of the work or the flavor of the season. It’s really important for young generations to understand what’s being created. We live in a moment that is really a popularity contest. It’s about how many likes and followers you have, and who will be your brand ambassadors. Viktor & Rolf don’t think about creating this way.”
Horsting said the designers, who met at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands, said he hopes that people will be “inspired, energized, that they will think, be moved, and also that they may have a bit of a different view about the fashion and the clothes than perhaps the ideas that they have, when they come in [to the museum.] That would be nice to widen people’s view of the horizon,” he said.
Emphasizing the importance of how fashion can elicit an emotional reaction, Horsting said that when he looks at art, great design or a great book, he wants ”to be moved and touched. I hope that we can offer that to the audience.”
“Late Stage Capitalism Waltz Haute Couture,” spring/summer 2023, Viktor & Rolf. Modeled by Eva Bus. Photographed by Marijke Aerden.
Marijke Aerden/Courtesy of Viktor and Rolf
While the exhibition is about Viktor & Rolf’s brand and its work, the designer noted that is not a brand-sponsored show. “I am proud to have been invited by the High Museum to show an overview of what we’ve done. I like to think that it’s on artistic merit.”
He also said that he is “really proud” of not just all of the work that he and Snoeren have done, but how Loriot has put the exhibition together. “It’s really beautiful and he really made it into a lively exhibition. It’s not just a continuation of this year we did this, the next year we did that,” Horsting said. “I’m looking forward to see this edit of everything that we’ve done. Obviously, I’ve lived all of these collections and all of these shows. Obviously, not everything is great. But when you see a show like this. The stuff that was not-so-great is edited out. It’s nice to see the highlights.”
Each piece also serves up plenty of memories. “So much work, so much time has passed,” Horsting said. “Hey, we are still here.”
Horsting said that it’s exciting to be having a show Stateside for the first time, having had several other shows in Europe — Paris, London, Munich and the Netherlands, as well as in Australia. Exhibiting at the High Museum will also allow the designers to address a new audience for their fashion, even though their fragrances are well-known in the U.S.
“We love to show in galleries for several reasons. We’re complete control freaks. With the catwalk show, there’s always the element of surprise. You cannot control everything. There can be a wonderful energy with the catwalk show, but it’s only for a very short amount of time and for a very limited audience,” Horsting said. “With the museum show, there’s a sense of control, the possibility to address the larger audience and to focus on the craftsmanship. That’s also a very important element that sometimes gets overlooked at a show. There’s simply not the time to appreciate all of the finer details and the technical aspects of our work.”
Horsting added, “Perhaps we’re different from other designers, because we always seem to want to tell a story or create something that tells a little more than only style.”
The exhibition was first staged last year at Munich’s Kuntshalle museum, where Loriot has also held ones for Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler and Peter Lindbergh — all of which were museum-initiated versus brand projects. “It’s very important for an artistic project to be about the artist,” he said.
From his perspective it is important nowadays to make the distinction between a museum exhibition and a brand-sponsored one. “There are a lot of these brand-sponsored exhibitions, which are more like advertising or storytelling from inside of the brand,” he said.
Making the point that having unlimited budgets doesn’t mean that an exhibition will look nice, the curator said, “It’s like a painting. It doesn’t need to have gold or diamonds to have value. It’s really the content that wins…I’m in awe of all of the ideas that they come up with. It’s not just about having the ideas, but also [being capable of] translating them into clothes. With them, it’s a good idea well-executed every season.”
There will be nearly 10 looks that have not been presented before from new and past collections, as well as artworks from Cindy Sherman and Andreas Gursky among others. Before meeting the designers, Loriot said that he thought they might be the Gilbert & George of fashion — very serious. “But they have a really tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, which I really appreciate. They are also incredibly open to new ideas and are very curious to have other people’s opinions, which is quite rare in the industry. I think most of the true artists always question themselves.
“I really believe that when you’re a creative and an artist, you are inspired by so many different things. Artists are a bit like sponges. They absorb information and different beauties. Anything can become inspirational,” Loriot said.
