Plaster, wooden, acrylic paint. Lacquer on fibreglass. Oil pastel on a repurposed projector display screen. Silicone and pure dyed hair. Supplies that come to thoughts once you consider his clothes. Martin Margiela, the style designer who retired greater than a decade in the past, cited frustrations with the growing calls for of the business as the explanation for his retreat. Identified for the unconventional use of supplies, taking objects out of context, deconstructing and reconstructing them into outfits. Margiela continually questioned the boundaries, worth and which means of style.
The ex-designer who’ve step by step withdrawn from the general public eye as his profession progressed, lastly “disappeared” in 2008. Nicely, a minimum of that’s what we thought. As not too long ago, he “reappeared” as an artist together with his first solo present at Lafayette Anticipations (till 2 January 2022).
Martin Margiela, DÉODORANT, 2021, Micro-perforated vinyl. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, FILM DUST, 2017-2021, Oil on microbead-coated canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, INTERIOR, 2021, Oil pastel on velvet-laminated canvas, picket field and polyurethane foam. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, BUS STOP, 2020, Steel, soiled Plexiglas, and artificial fur. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, MOULD(S), 2020, Plaster, wooden, and acrylic paint. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, RED NAILS, 2019, Lacquer on fibreglass. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, MONUMENT, 2021, PVC tarpaulin print, classic couch, and audio loop. Courtesy of the artist. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin Margiela, VANITAS, 2019, Silicone and pure dyed hair. Courtesy of the artist and Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp. Produced by Lafayette Anticipations.
Martin’s artwork, featured within the exhibition, shouldn’t be thrilling as a result of it’s revolutionary (as his style as soon as was). It’s thrilling as a result of it considerably signifies Margiela’s existence. Lastly, after 10 years of silence, he “made a contact” with an viewers by his, conceptual but tremendously tactile, Artwork.
The weather that make up the showcase: drawings, portray, sculptures, movies and installations are supposed to be considered as one bigger art work. The person components draw on themes which are in keeping with Margiela’s earlier (style) outputs. Transience and transformation, presence versus absence. Bricolage, Dadaism, Arte Povera.
The Martin Margiela, exhibition-turned-labyrinth, consists of greater than 20 works by the ex-designer. The present finally leaves questioning: was Margiela an Artist all alongside, and style merely certainly one of his artistic mediums?
Photograph Credit score: Pierre Antoine
