Kunsthalle München to explore Viktor&Rolf’s fashion statements

Kunsthalle München museum in Munich, Germany, is to host a fashion exhibition dedicated to Dutch fashion duo Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren featuring more than 100 of their most daring creations.

‘Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements’ opens in February 2024 and will mark the first major retrospective on Viktor&Rolf in Germany. The exhibition, developed by the Kunsthalle München in collaboration with the Canadian curator Thierry Maxime Loriot, will delve into duo’s “passions, obsessions and singular vision”.

On display will be 100 of Viktor&Rolf’s designs, many of which will be exhibited for the first time, from the designers’ own archive and private collections. The avant-garde looks will be showcased alongside a selection of their dolls, inspired by antique porcelain dolls, dressed in the designers’ most iconic creations, which are handmade season after season.

The exhibition will also feature numerous videos, sketches, and works by distinguished visual artists, including Andreas Gursky, Inez&Vinoodh, and Ellen von Unwerth, as well as specially commissioned animated projections by internationally acclaimed visual effect studio Rodeo FX, famous for their work on series like Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings.

Viktor&Rolf retrospective to open in Germany in February 2024

Commenting on the upcoming exhibition of their work, Viktor&Rolf said in a statement: “We are thrilled to show a selection of more than 30 years of our work at the Kunsthalle München. We have always felt strongly about the way museum shows complement our seasonal catwalk presentations.

"Exhibitions are more democratic than the runway: they allow more visitors, and they last longer. They can show that certain themes recur over the years and put a spotlight onto the sublime craftmanship that goes into the creation of our pieces.”

The exhibit will be divided into nine chapters, each referring to specific themes “cherished” by the designers – Upside/Down, Fashion Artists, Russian Dolls, Fashion Statements, The Dolls, Zen Garden, Performing Fashion, Viktor&Rolf on Stage, and Upcycling Couture.

Highlights will include how the duo worked with vintage fabrics used by Cristobal Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, and later on, how they referenced not only their own former collections but also their signature motifs, such as ruffles and embroideries and voluminous silhouettes, to create highly unorthodox haute couture as a ‘new beginning’ in patchworks, braids or woven techniques.

Pieces from their ‘Fashion Statements’ collection from spring/summer 2019, which featured short slogans typically used in social media on tulle dresses will be showcased alongside the duo’s spring 2023 ‘Late Stage Capitalism’ collection, and its autumn/winter 1999 ‘Russian Doll’ collection.

Roger Diederen, director of the Kunsthalle, said: “With ‘Viktor&Rolf. Fashion Statements,’ the Kunsthalle München is organising the next major haute couture exhibition. I am very excited to be able to present this designer duo from Amsterdam in Munich and thus realise their first retrospective in the German-speaking world.

“Viktor&Rolf's innovative creations, which have been inspiring not only the fashion world but also the art scene for 30 years now, will be shown in an unexpected scenography at the Kunsthalle.”

Accompanying the exhibition will be an illustrated publication with introductory essays and an interview with Viktor&Rolf which will provide an in-depth look at the fashion artists’ contradictory identity that pushes the boundaries between art and fashion, often contrasting romance and power, exuberance and control, classicism and rebellion.

‘Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Statements’ will run from February 23 to October 6, 2024, at Kunsthalle München museum in Munich, Germany.