Paths Towards Modernity III

A fictive documentary in art and fashion.

1. Walter van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2014
2. Isa Genzken Bouquet, 2004
3. Isa Genzken Mutter Mit Kind, 2004
4. Isa Genzken Oil (Detail), 2007
5. Walter van Beirendonck Fall/Winter 2013
6. Walter van Beirendonck Fall/Winter 2009
7. Isa Genzken MLR, 1992
8. Isa Genzken Schauspieler, 2013
9. Nick Knight Dream The World Awake, 2011
10. W&LT Fall/Winter 2009
11. Isa Genzken Schauspieler, 2013
12. Isa Genzken Installation view, 2012
13. Walter van Beirendonck Fall/Winter 2012
14. Isa Genzken Fuck The Bauhaus, 2000
15. Walter van Beirendonck The Sequel, 2009
16. Walter van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2008
17. Isa Genzken Installation view, 2012
18. Isa Genzken Mona Isa X (Gold), 2010
19. Walter van Beirendonck Fall/Winter 2013
20. Isa Genzken Schauspieler, 2013
21. Walter van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2009
22. Walter van Beirendonck Landed-Geland Part I, 2001
23. Isa Genzken Ohr, 1980

Cardboard, plastic, mirror, spray-paint, acrylic, metal, textile ribbons, light ropes, mirror foil, colour print on paper, MDF and casters. Materials that constitute the fashion collections and art installations of Walter van Beirendonck and Isa Genzken. Glitter foil and foam structures are their totems of popular culture, stacked on top of each other.

Rather than propelling a material-ist approach of 'readymades', the works function as allegories. The matter's value is absolutely neclected and the singular parts taken out of their original purpose and meaningfulness. By re-combining this 'material', Beirendonck and Genzken create new bodies, structures and machines that are abstract and futurist in form but reminiscent of everyday, well-known ideas and domestic objects.

The end result is a 'transformational cluster' of non-related parts that are forced or molded into a new grouping. Similar to child play or alchemist experiment, both figures follow the human urge to explore the principle of cause and effect. A 'what-happens-if' working mode.
/HORST

"Prada Banality", Post-Painterly Art VIII

or 'Fashion For Intellectuals' (FFI)



1. Isa Genzken Mona Isa IV (Dürer Selbsportrait), 2010
2. Prada Fall/Winter 2013

Within this art historical mishmash or 'mix and cash', Prada not only explores the canvas to frame a point of view but also creates installation views that we might associate with Isa Genzken, Anselm Reyle or Wolfgang Tillmans who stage the 'sheet', the paper, the folded fabric, the cutout, the collage as itself. Material as readymade, or, in case of Prada: fashion as post-curational act.
/HORST

Post New York IV

A false encyclopaedic guide to the New York collections, presenting:
Proenza Schouler Spring/Summer 2013

1. Yens Cuyvers Roswell Did Happen, 2012
2. Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2011
3. Isa Genzken Fassade II (Duchamp), 2010

Supposedly inspired by tumblr, the Proenza collection applied the beloved principle of 'collage'. An approach to be applauded for its subtle complexity. The commendable example of mixed media that creates something new instead of repeating the old.
/HORST

Post Paris XVIII

A false encyclopaedic guide to the menswear collections, presenting:
Walter van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2013

1. Pierre et Gilles St. Sebastian, 1987
2. Pablo Picasso Pierrot with a Mask, 1918
3. Isa Genzken Urlaub, 2004

This collection had everything unsightly you can imagine: gay kitsch, harlequin collars and loads of foam. All put together à la Genzken. There were bits of bondage, too. And mythologic references for which reason we do forgive.
/HORST

P.S.: The woman sitting front row to the left was clearly trying to make the models trip.