| CONTEMPORARY |
WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK DANIELE BALICE
A few months ago I ran into a handful of interesting art world characters - not only Austrian art stars Gelatin and young art hipsters but also older, conservative art dealers - wearing amazingly cut sweatshirts and jackets corrying odd sentences like' cloudy stars' or 'war & terror, disease & disaster, our world... polluted animals: extinct, flowers: extinct'. Out of curiosity I asked who designed their outfits. Their answer was Walter Van Beirendonck. The nome suddenly brought me back to memories of my art school days when I used to wear a few clothing pieces signed W< (Wild and Letal Trash) designed by Wolter Van Beirendonck. I was particularly proud of their original design, which represented to me the perfect marriage between fashion and art, rebellion and acceptance. But forget W<. Walter is bock and this time with a new label, finally under his own name. Out of curiosity I decided to attend his lost presentation at Paris Fashion Week. The collection Relics from the Future was staged in a typical Parisian courtyard, strategically located in the gallery district. Instead of a catwalk, a group of atypical young models were posing on pedestals. Inspired by the adventures of Captain Cook, Wolter mixed up 18th-century silhouettes with the ornamental dress codes of the Rapanui tribes. Interested in the present as much as in the past, Walter contaminates the clothes with the 'relics from the future': SMS messages, computer graphics as symbols of a present already digested by fast-forward consumerism. The result is a new vocabulary rarely seen in the fashion business. But who is Walter Van Beirendonck? Born in Belgium in the small town of Brecht, he is probably the most representative designer of the Antwerp Six (which also includes Dirk Van Saene, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester and Marine Yee), all of whom debuted in 1987 at the British Designers Show. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Van Beirendonck started designing under the label W< and soon became famous for his impressive presentations - something between a techno parade and an art performance - which, before long, were generating press in art and fashion magazines in equal measure. Following his motto 'Kiss the Future', the designer collaborated with Orlan and took part in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Museum Boijimans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Kunstlerhaus in Vienna and, most recently, the 2004 Berlin Biennale. Forever inspired by all manner of cultural challenges, Van Beirendonck opened a multi-brand store based in Antwerp designed by B architecten. The shop, in addition to a window gallery for artists, defends and supports the work of young fashion designers, most of them based in Antwerp or graduates of the Royal Academy where Van Beirendonck currently teaches. Among the fresh talent is Bernhard Willhelm, Van Beirendonck's former student and one of today's most promising new designers. Always in seorch of a creative community, Van Beirendonck's design has been inspired by the energy of music, art, literature and sexuality, but also by history, politics, economics and the environment. Van Beirendonck, however, never looks to speculate on the world's tragedies or to make political statements What he tries to offer his public is an honest and straightforward vision of what he thinks the world is, or should be. Today Van Beirendonck is devoted to simpler presentations, which finally reveal his talent as a designer. As conceptual as his creative process sounds, the end result is special clothing with a contemporary silhouette. His models are unique and his designs offer on escape from the dictatorship of the fashionworld. Even if every piece of his clothing looks completely crazy, ultimately they are about a T-shirt or trousers, something everyone can wear. Faithful to his independency and integrity, Van Beirendonck is a rare example of pure talent and absolute creativity - above all, a true artist who just loves clothing. DANIELE BALICE IS AN INDEPENDENT CURATOR AND CRITIC BASED IN PARIS AND NEW YORK |
