FOR FASHION'S SAKE
3 May – 3 September 2017
The new EMMA exhibition For Fashion’s Sake opening in May will bring Nordic fashion into the art museum. The exhibition features 13 designers whose radical approach to fashion is stretching the boundaries of fashion towards art. The exhibition is not an art exhibition, however. It is a showcase of pioneering design, with a specific focus on an impressive display and interactiveness.
The exhibition includes works by 13 Nordic designers working on the crest of fashion, who either already have made their international breakthrough or are very close to doing so.
Designers
Iceland: Maria Jonsdottir (Staka), Anita Hirlekar
Sweden: Minna Palmqvist, Simon Ekrelius
Finland: Hanne Jurmu & Anton Vartiainen, Maria Suomalainen, Satu Maaranen, Emilia Tikka, Irene Kostas (ONAR), and the fashion art work evolving during the exhibition Justus K
Denmark: Maikel Tawadros, Tilde Bay Kristoffersen
EMMA likens fashion with visual art, because from the point of view of an art museum, the interesting thing about fashion is its obvious links with art. Many designers are inspired by art and creative processes in art. Like art, the first sketches of a design are often motivated by new thinking, breaking the boundaries, a visual narrative.
The For Fashion’s Sake exhibition is located in the lobby of the Exhibition Centre Weegee and has free admission. The exhibition, which highlights the interface between fashion and art is open until 3 September 2017.
The exhibition is a joint effort by Nordic design and fashion centres, higher education institutions, most prominently the Aalto University Department of Design, and other actors in the field of fashion.
http://emma.museum/forfashionssake
Exhibition hashtag: #forfashionssake
Attachment: Designer presentations
Press photos:
https://kuvat.emma.museum/kuvat/Lehdistokuvat-Press/For+Fashion's+Sake/
Password: emmamuseum
Further information:
Exhibition curator
Reetta Kalajo, Chief Curator, Education, EMMA
[email protected] , tel. + 358 40 557 1422
Inquiries, interview bookings:
Iia Palovaara, Communications Coordinator, EMMA
[email protected], +358 43 826 8713
Simon Ekrelius’ work relies on silhouette, texture and volume. Currently based in London, Ekrelius specialises in women’s fashion.
A champion of classic tailoring, his signature style is architectural and minimalist with contrasting surface textures. His collections often play with opposites, whether in colour or materials. He favours while, black and grey. He uses mainly natural materials such as silk, wool, cotton but accentuates them vinyl and polyester. The garments are manufactured in the UK using high-quality materials. The designer is originally from Sweden.
Anita Hirlekar’s work concentrates on the impact of colour and surfaces. Her ladies’ fashion label is characterised by unique handmade pieces and abundant detailing. Each garment is handmade at the designer’s studio in Northern Ireland.
Hirlekar’s work has received wide critical acclaim in fashion competitions and magazines. She is an alumna of the prestigious Central Saint Martins art school in London.
María Kristín Jónsdottir’s inspiration comes from Icelandic sagas and rugged but evocative landscape. She creates accessories for a fictitious nomadic tribe, living in the rural hinterland of Iceland. The tribe is the basis for the Staka label and its laser-cut necklaces and wristbands and other accessories.
The starting point for the designer is the material, the craft, Iceland and her history. María Krístin takes these elements and marries them with a contemporary aesthetic and technology. Her work has achieved wide attention especially in the field of Nordic design.
Anton Vartiainen and Hanne Jurmu, who won high accolades at 2016 Hyères Festival of Fashion, are guided by a strong value base. The award-winning collection is based on the designer’s unique approach to the relationship between the accessory and the garment, on ecological choices and her humanistic outlook.
Jurmu and Vartiainen are not a designer duo, as both work independently. Their collection, which won at Hyères and will now be on display at the For Fashion’s Sake exhibition is their only collaboration, in which both designers brought forward their own design ideology. The two are both graduates of the Department of Design at Aalto University.
Justus K, the young artist working on the boundary between performance art and fashion, has been selected to produce a commissioned work, which will evolve in the course of the exhibition. He has sought inspiration from the Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection on display at EMMA’s Touch exhibition.
Justus K specialises in experimental fashion art and alternative materials. He is a graduate of the Lahti Institute of Design, and is currently pursuing further studies at the Department of Design at Aalto University. Justus K’s works have been exhibited in Finland, for example at the Design Museum’s exhibition Anthology of Finnish Fashion, as well as abroad.
ONAR is a specialist in high-quality fur clothing and accessories, leather bags and unisex fashion. In this label, soft materials meet with tightly geometric forms and minimalism with rich textures. Irene Kostas, the founder of the label, comes from a family of furriers and takes forward its legacy. Her style takes fur, a traditional and controversial material, into the future. All products are handmade in Finland or Greece with responsibly sourced materials.
ONAR is an internationally well-known label whose flagship store open in Helsinki in 2016.
Tilde Bay Kristoffersen walks her own path in between fashion and visual art. Her work is based on fictitious stories and mythical characters. Her materials and techniques are unique and complex. Interestingly she also has experience of commercial fashion industry having worked for brands such as H&M and Alexander McQueen.
Tilde Bay Kristoffersen studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
Satu Maaranen works for a number of different brands, such as Marimekko and Petit Bateau. She has made a successful international career, and is known for her vibrant colours, painterly prints and sculptural silhouette. Maaranen is a master of creating interesting tension and dialogue between the cut and the print.
Maaranen, who works in Helsinki and abroad, is an alumna of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University and won the prestigious international Hyères Festival of Fashion competition in 2013. She has been awarded with several prizes and received high critical acclaim in international fashion publications.
Minna Palmqvist is a designer and artist in whose work fashion is most of all a tool for exploring the world. Her works are a cross between art and fashion, clothing and art objects.
Palmqvist’s works raise topical issues, such as the conflict between social pressures on personal appearance and the reality.
Minna Palmqvist was born in Åland and she has studied and currently works in Stockholm. Her works have been widely exhibited in recent years in Europe as well as in Asia and America.
Maria Suomalainen is a ladies’ fashion designer who likes to break the rules of traditional styles. However, her designs remain highly wearable. He style is opulent yet raw in its own way. Their colour palette is neutral to allow the shape and functionality of the garments to come unto their own.
She is a graduate of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University and is currently working on her postgraduate degree at London’s Central Saint Martins. Her collections have been features in the Nordic countries and China.
Maikel Tawardos’ designed are inspired by architecture but also motion and the potential of different materials. The themes of his work stem from the seasons and nature of the North.
Each collection has a powerful story behind it, with themes ranging between popular culture to the primordial force of nature. His materials reflect to story of the pieces either through their naturalness and coolness or alternatively through a minimalistic texture.
Emilia Tikka is a Berlin-based Finnish designer and researcher. She researches materiality, the potential of the human body and its use as a medium of presentation. Her work provides a commentary on technological culture and future scenarios.
She has worked for a number of international designers, such as Henrik Vibskov. Tikka’s works have featured widely in international art and design exhibitions.
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art is one of Finland’s central art museums. Located in Tapiola, Espoo, EMMA’s collection and exhibition programme profiles Finnish and international modernism, contemporary art as well as design. EMMA’s exhibition spaces – the largest in Finland – are situated in the architecturally impressive WeeGee building designed by Professor Aarno Ruusuvuori. The modern architecture adds to the experience-focused presentation of the changing exhibitions and permanent collections of EMMA, the Saastamoinen Foundation and Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation.
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