The Fulbright Program, Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation

Today was announced that the Fulbright Program has been awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, Spain.

I would like to congratulate the program for the award and as a Fulbright Alumni (Washington D.C. 1999), I would like to express my immense appreciation to the program for the invaluable opportunity, both professional and personal, that I had when receiving the grant, and that makes me part of the Fulbright community.

Full story here

Displaying dress

Sometimes one can get good ideas from street to display dress, like this Kimono in Camden shopping area

Play What’s Not There, expo at Raven Raw Gallery, London

Some images of current exhibition at Raven Raw, in Artillery Lane, curated by Michael Bracewell

Charles James: Beyond fashion and MET Ball, an inspiration in gowns

Days after the “event of the year”, the MET Ball, why not take a moment for reflection about the influence from the gowns shown at the exhibition Charles James: Beyond fashion, in the gowns shown at the red carpet. Let’s check on some examples from the exhibit, and images from two reportages of the red carpet from the news.

Images from the MET website for the exhibit, 

Images from photographer Jamie Beck’s instagram reportage for the MET,

Images from the NYTimes, slideshow for the event

From Vera to Veruschka: The Unseen Photographs by Johnny Moncada

A "bouquet" exhibition at Somerset House, showing photographs of Veruschka by Italian photographer Johnny Moncada, from the website:

Curated by Moncada’s daughter Valentina Moncada and creative director Antonio Monfreda, From Vera to Veruschka: The Unseen Photographs by Johnny Moncada will feature over 20 works, both in black and white and colour, and a video installation which takes the viewer on a behind the scenes journey through the dark room to the dolce vita locations.  

There is a short video as a complement of the exposition.

 

It is shown in a small space, bared and minimal, but it works well, except that the brightness from the outside brings all the reflections inside which for photography exhibits is a real problem, and it makes the visit kind of uncomfortable, and even worse for photographs and documenting the exposition.

There s little information in form of panels, partly because the exhibition is a complement to the book recently published by Rizzoli.  

Europeana Fashion Conference at Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Attending today to a very interesting conference about Made in Italy: re-use of fashion heritage and new digital perspectives organice buscar Europeana Fashion.  Several presentatíons and debate about the influence of digital in fashion and museums.

Costumes preparation at Royal Opera House (High House Production Park)

Busy workshop and studio with team preparing costume sets for a new play, collaboration of Royal Opera House and a community group in Purfleet, Es, where the ROH has its production workshop facilities.

Exhibits at The Photographer's Gallery, London

The well known photography gallery in London, The Photographer's Gallery, is currently showing three different expositions.

Taking shots: The photography of William S. Burroughs.  An exhibition dedicated to display Burrroughs' extensive work in photography, that shows his interesting and sometime intriguing creative process.

Another expo is Andy Warhol: Photographs 1976 – 1987, an always exciting approach to Warhol's beloved art form.

I told them I didn't believe in art, that I believed in photography. Andy Warhol 

The third show is David Lynch: The Factory Photographs, where fans of the filmmaker can enjoy his enigmatic images.many linked to his films.

Kaj Franck designs, a surprise gift

For a museum person, receiving a museum piece as a gift is just a fantastic surprise!  This is what happens when I opened the box from Iitala and I  saw the beautiful glasses Kartio, designed by Kaj Franck in 1958 for the firm Iitala.  Then browsing into my photo archives, I discovered they were one of the objects shown as part of a retrospective exhibition of Kaj Franck at the Design Museum in Gent (Belgium) held in January 2012.

These are the glasses, now in my collection.

And here is the article published in blog with the full review of the exhibit, and some images from the exhibit with the archival pieces.

"Living Fashion", exhibition at the MoMu Antwerp (March-August 2012)

These weeks the news about fashion in the main international cities are full with mentions of catwalks and presentations for A/W collections.  The nowness of these events influence the obvious reflection on the importance of timelessness.  To help understanding the meaning of wearing fashion,  two years ago the MoMu Antwerp developed and exhibition that displayed part of the collection of Mrs. Jacoba de Jonge, which was being research and now is part of the museum's archives.

The exhibit called "Living Fashion, Women's daily wear 1750-1950", curated by Karen Van Godtsenhoven and Wim Mertens, both curators at the Mode Museum, explored the idea of middle class women's garde robe for every day circumstances.  The period the exposition covered  is ample and showed  the transformation of fashion rules and impositions over a long lapse, and reflects that changes in garments and habits of wearing them were somehow product of historical and social changes.

The exhibition was divided into 13 sections each one of them presenting the different aspects of apparels and accessories, establishing a conversation on how and when to wear them and translating the the evolution of textiles and patterns.  The design of the layout followed the idea of juxtaposing home and street wear according to social rules. 

At the entrance of the expo there was a video showing some interesting aspects of working with archives and collections and there was a sing with information about delicate conditions under what the dress, costumes and textiles must be exhibited, therefore the very bleak lighting was used in all the halls that sometimes coloured warmly some of the garments.

View of the exhibit with generals and some close ups of pieces and accessories.

There were some videos and large format prints that offer context to the pieces showed.  Those prints were as interesting to observe as the collection itself.