Script
Fashion and interiors, from salon to house
Through 3 aug 2008
Presenting masterpieces from the history of fashion and interiors, the passage of time is central to the visitor’s experience of the new display ‘Script’. Historical dresses, cabinets and sofas as well as modern furniture by Gerrit Rietveld and contemporary fashion by designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood* are combined within a continuous filmic experience. Costume dramas from the last twenty years are the inspiration for film-sets displays, resulting in a new interpretation of Utrecht’s famous period rooms.
Fashion, film and interior
The fashion industry emerged in the late eighteenth century when the wealthy paraded their finery on the boulevards, at the opera and in the shopping galleries, thus demonstrating that they were à la mode. Wearing the most up-to-date fashions is still an important form of communication today in semi-public places such as restaurants, terraces and nightclubs. The fashions and interiors of a particular period are often related in terms of trends in colour, form and production techniques. Films, and now video games, can initiate or reinforce such trends.
From ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ to ‘Blade Runner’
In the films that are the starting point for ‘Script’, furniture and fashion represent important historical and cultural developments. In ‘Sense and Sensibility’ the interiors and costumes reflect the idealisation of simple rural existence versus depraved city life. Dziga Vertov’s 1929 film ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ is the cinematographic equivalent of Gerrit Rietveld’s 1924 Rietveld Schröder House. Not ‘nature’ but ‘culture’ was the rallying cry. There was a belief in the ability to shape the future. Within ‘Script’ highlights from the museum’s Rietveld collection are placed within an extraordinary modernistic environment. This Rietveld set is a sort of ‘sentinel’ – looking back at the past and ahead towards the future. It is remarkable that this future recycles so many aspects of the past. The science-fiction film ‘Blade Runner’ fused many historical styles and had a great influence on the cyber-punk look that was such a feature of 80s and 90s nightlife. The architecture of the dance scene in the film ‘Basic Instinct’ is employed to bring these influences together.
Everyone is a film star!
At the Centraal Museum everyone is a film star! ‘Script’ not only situates highlights from the collection within film sets, it also invites the visitor to step inside various sets and be photographed (no flash). Visitors can assume a role in: ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ (Stephen Frears, 1988), ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (Ang Lee, 1995), ‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ (John Ford, 1939), ‘Madame Bovary’ (Claude Chabrol, 1991), Monsieur Proust (Raul Ruiz 1999), ‘The Age of Innocence’ (Martin Scorsese, 1993), ‘India Song’ (Marguerite Duras, 1975), Gosford Park (Robert Altman 2001), ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ (Dziga Vertov, 1929), ‘Basic Instinct’ (Paul Verhoeven, 1992), ‘Blade Runner’ (Ridley Scott, 1982) and the computer game ‘Myst’ (Robyn and Rand Miller, 1993).
Script is designed by Concern/GillianSchrofer and Darlaine Heitinga
* Names subject to confirmation. Because of the conservation requirements of certain fragile costumes, the fashion exhibits in ‘Script’ will change every three months.
Centraal Museum Urtecht, the Netherlands