Open Space Contemporary Art Museum unveils exhibition on political resistance in fashion

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Aug 31, 2018

On Friday 31 August, the Amsterdam-based Open Space Contemporary Art Museum unveiled the exhibition "Resist! Take a stand in fashion".

The show explores resistance in fashion and is initiated by curator Marian Duff in collaboration with Modemuze, the Netherlands’ online platform for fashion and costume heritage.

Work on view comes from photographers of the OSCAM network and bloggers and editors from the Modemuze community. Together, they have selected objects from renowned Dutch museums, including the Amsterdam Museum, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Museum Rotterdam and Tropenmuseum.

Displayed objects include the Amsterdam Rainbow dress from the Amsterdam Museum and a 1916 bathing suit for women from the Centraal Museum Utrecht. The teams of photographers and editors who picked the objects were selected by Marian Duff and Modemuze’s Mila Ernst and Lisa Whittle.

“Stories of resistance occur everywhere in fashion history. From 'healthier corsets' to resistance pins of World War II: the stories that garments can tell, refer to emancipation, dreams of inclusiveness, liberation and acceptance,” the museum said in a press release.

OSCAM is an initiative by MAFB, an international community for a new generation of creative talents founded by Marian Duff and Richard Soesanna. The Amsterdam-based company currently operates the brands fashion fest, OSCAM and Club MAFB.

The Modemuze platform portrays fashion and costume collections from various Dutch museums and aims to inform and inspire a wider audience by publishing the objects online.

MAFB and Modemuze have collaborated since 2014 to create programs for fashion designers, artists, editors and bloggers.

The exhibition will be on view until 30 September 2018.