Mise en Scène. Fashion Photography from the Belle Époque to Today

Description

Focus: Couture and Swiss Fabrics. The exhibition «Mise en Scène» combines international photographic art with regional textile industry and illustrates over 120 years of fashion, photography, and social history. Fashion photographs tell not only about clothes but also about body images and role perceptions: from the liberated silhouette of the 1920s to the glamorous femininity of the post-war period to the confident, diverse representations of the present. Thus, fashion photography becomes a mirror of societal changes – and a showcase for the Swiss textile industry, whose products have been present at international fashion events for decades. Mise en Scène gathers works by renowned photographers and studios such as Séeberger Frères, Atelier d’Ora Benda, Helmut Newton, Peter Knapp, Jeanloup Sieff, and Iwan Baan. Complemented by textiles and fashion from Forster Rohner, Jakob Schlaepfer, Akris, and other Swiss companies, the exhibition opens an exciting dialogue between international photographic art and Eastern Swiss textile tradition. Another aspect of the fashion industry is highlighted by the series «Portrait of a Swiss Company», which is also on view in the lounge of the Textile Museum. In 1972, Barbara Davatz created impressive portraits of female and male workers of the textile company Walser AG, Herisau.