“Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion – Hair – Design” at Kulturforum, Berlin
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Berlin’s Kulturforum and Kunstgewerbemuseum will host “Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion – Hair – Design” that opens on August 24, 2019, and runs through December 1, 2019.The exhibition is a project of the Kunstgewerbemuseum and features a gene“Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion – Hair – Design” at Kulturforum, Berlin
Berlin’s Kulturforum and Kunstgewerbemuseum will host “Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion – Hair – Design” that opens on August 24, 2019, and runs through December 1, 2019.The exhibition is a project of the Kunstgewerbemuseum and features a generation of young African fashion designers who are currently redefining “African” fashion and setting up innovative design hubs throughout Africa.In today’s day, African culture should no longer serve only as a source of inspiration for Western fashion designers. The ‘Generation Now’ is proving the very same by currently breaking up the hegemony of the “Western fashion system.” Similarly, if we look at it from a historical context, hair and along with it “African” bodies were a common ground for the exercise of colonial power. It was disciplined, regulated, and subjected to the Western ideal of beauty. Traditional African hairstyles are being once again disseminated and made accessible today. They are also being used as a marker of creative identity formation while hair as an artistic material is increasingly coming to the front.Taking this concept forward, the Kunstgewerbemuseum has invited fashion designers and artists to reposition the themes related to fashion and hair within a museum context with installation works.This multi-project began in November of 2018 at the museum with a joint one-week workshop on global fashion, museum and collection policy, and decolonial discourse. This year in March and April, the final results were presented on-site in Dakar and Kampala. “ In August 2019, the results of the project stations and collaborations will be played back to the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin,” the museum informs.On view are mixed-media installation “The Perfect Stereotype” by Lamula Ander-son (London/UK, Kampala/Uganda). In “Barkcloth Connecting Afro Futures Using the Signs of the Now,” fashion designer Jose Hendo (London/UK, Kampala/Uganda) uses the traditional Ugandan material “bark-cloth.” The label uses this material to address questions of sustainability in contemporary fashion. A multimedia work based on their current collection “54Punk” is in development by Bull Doff (Dakar/Senegal). Whereas Adama Paris (Dakar/Senegal) in her installation “Shameless Afro Hair,” questions beauty ideals and norms for hair and fashion in the African context. Wig sculptures designed after Berlin architectural icons by artist Meschac Gaba (Cotonou/Benin) are part of the display.Apart from these, other works by artists such as Diana Ejaita (illustrator, Berlin/Germany), Njola Impressions (Kampala/Ugan-da), Tondo Clothing (Kampala/Uganda) and Ken Aicha Sy (Dakar/ Senegal) as well as fashion and music videos, photographs and illustrations are also part of the exhibition.“Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion – Hair – Design” opens on August 24, 2019, and runs through December 1, 2019, at the Kulturforum, Matthaikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin, Germany.For details, visit: https://www.smb.museum/museen-und-einrichtungen/kulturforum/home.htmlClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the exhibition. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more