Bernhard Willhelm:
Het Totaal Rappel
Designer Bernhard Willhelm (1972, Ulm, Germany) graduated from the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Art in Antwerp in 1998. In 2006, Willhelm and business partner Jutta Kraus donated their entire apparel collection to MoMu, which became the incentive for an exceptional retrospective of Willhelm’s work.
Willhelm’s work is characterised by storytelling – he uses absurd visual imagery rich in fantasy, which at first glance seems innocent and even childlike but wholly undermined. His fashion, however, is never anti-fashion. Along the lines of other revered fashion houses, Willhelm consistently constructs his own universe, always with a slightly ironic slant, violating taboos, and disrupting accepted dress codes. He unites the banal, the grotesque, and the ordinary with the world of high fashion.
For “Het Totaal Rappel”, Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus have invited Swiss artists Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs to create the graphic design and scenography for the exhibition. The result is a total encompassing, environment: each collection is presented in a different manner, enabling visitors to become familiar with the most diverse sources of inspiration and thoroughly immerse themselves in the rich fantasy of Bernhard Willhelm’s universe – a roller coaster ride of images and impressions that is not to be missed!
Exhibition under the lead of
Curators: Bernhard Willhelm & Jutta Kraus | Scenographers: Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs
Image courtesy of MoMu, Antwerp.