‘Oh Christobal, what a pleasure to finally encounter with your majesty.‘ I thought. And took all that I could from this slightly spontaneous, but definitely unforgettable meeting.
The exhibition “Balenciaga y la pintura espanola” owned everything what a good art show is expected to have – magnifying lighting focused perfectly on particular garments, excellent selection of pieces, both paintings and clothing, interesting outline of the idea standing behind the exhibition and mystical atmosphere which turned the maze of corridors into a holy sanctuary. ( full photo-report at the end of the article )
A curator of the exhibition performed an amazing job by making an excellent connection between two means of art – classic painting and coming from 50’s and 60’s pieces of garments designed by the God of form and silhouette, Christobal Balenciaga. That means, exploration of the exhibition forces the spectators to turn into insightful detectives by looking for interrelations between different parts of the collection, understanding their meaning and trying to figure out if ‘Balenciaga really has seen this painting before…’
I would also like to introduce why this experience was incredibly important for me. I will start with a brief history lesson. Christobal Balenciaga was an artist, but first and foremost an artisan who treated his customers as sculptures which he was curving. Knowing this fact, it isn’t hard to believe that before his death he demanded that the brand signutered by his name has to die along with himself.
Bloody hell. As you know, it did NOT.
The brand was continued, but the spirit simply wasn’t the same. The new ‘Balenciaga‘ was passed from hands to hands, reshaped, reproduced, simply destructed. It wasn’t Christobal after all. Then Demna Gvesalia popped up on a stage, took a spotlight and a mic, screamed ‘Yo, how about making Vetements, but as Balenciaga?’ And surprisingly, the whole world started to clap and whoop it up.
For Christobal’s sake, WHAT?!
Please don’t take me wrong – I respect Demna and I’m a huge fan of Vetements. I think his apocalyptic, nonaestethic, futuristic visions strongly inspired by a communistic Russian playground ( #slavic_gang ) are incredible. He’s fresh, different, provocative. But couldn’t he keep it only for his OWN brand? I am really happy for new designers to start their own fahion houses and present their own, unusual points of view. But because I love Christobal so much, I simply cannot stand a profanation that we are all experiencing.
Let me use this example, for those who think I am a little bit too much on this topic. Making out of classic Balenciaga’s name a pop-cultured hype fed with disfigured clothing and disrespectul popularity can be compared to a situation, in which a random, untalented person buys a copyright to the name of ‘Leonardo da Vinci‘, paints some crap completely not caring about how the real artist treated the canvas, and now sells it telling everyone ‘But it’s Da Vinci‘!
What would be a reaction of the society? Burn him at the stake!
I think people should understand that this connection is accurate, and Balenciagas they all dream about are not really the wave. I mean wear whatever you like but…
You know, Christobal probably rolls over in his grave every time he hears the unpleasant rattle made by the huge shoes that have his name on the side…
But maybe I’m wrong. Let me know what you think, let’s discuss.
bisous.
kb.
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