© Gunnar Meier, Switzerland
Fashion means more than just clothing that protects you from strangers’ glances, cold or warmth. Fashion thrives on going far beyond all aspects of utility, both aesthetically and culturally. With a view to aesthetic modernity, Charles Baudelaire already saw “in the beautiful” both an eternal, unchanging and a relative element at work, dependent on circumstances. He attached particular importance to fashion, since without it the unchanging would prove to be indigestible, indeterminable and inappropriate to human nature. In the meantime, however, the rapid change of the ever-new has long since taken on a problematic dimension: One trend constantly follows the next, globally operating textile giants launch dozens of new collections produced under precarious conditions. Luxury labels shred new goods for the sake of exclusivity and mountains of textile waste destroy ecosystems. “The fashion (industry),” says the announcement for the exhibition „Critical Consumption“, which will be shown at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna from 30 August to 8 September 2024, “is increasingly in the focus with regard to consumer behaviour, production processes and sustainability”.
For more than a year, the MAK Gallery will be the venue for historical objects, contemporary design and artistic positions that provide impulses for the discussion of current questions of our time: “What is the value of our clothing?” or “Who can afford to refuse consumption? Fashion consumption, they say, can be “read as paradigmatic for the mass consumption of the capitalist-oriented society of the Global North”.
On display are video works and other works by international artists – including Celia Pym, Dead White Men’s Clothes, Stefanie Moshammer, Sylvie Fleury, Tenant of Culture, The Nest Collective and Wang Bing. The works refer to the complex interconnections of consumption and production and question their global impact. In contrast, the history of mass fashion consumption in the Global North from the 18th century onwards is traced, with historical objects from the MAK collection illustrating how fashion consumption has developed over around three centuries. Questions and thought experiments on one’s own buying behaviour are intended to stimulate reflection, as are critical consumer positions on the throwaway society and antitheses “on the sheer insatiable desire for novelty”.
The project is part of the MAK’s “10×17 Sustainable Development Goal” commitment, which aims to promote conscious consumption. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive supporting programme; on the opening evening (29.8.2023, 6 p.m.), for example, the museum invites visitors to a discussion entitled “How can we consume fashion responsibly? “and moderated by exhibition curator Lara Steinhäußer, the museum will host a panel talk with Alec Leach (author of “The world is on fire but we’re still buying shoes”), Madeleine Alizadeh (founder of dariadéh, content creator) and Sabinna Rachimova (founder, lecturer, consultant, SABINNA, Fashion Revolution Austria).
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