A few of us at Canvas spent the weekend in Brussells, following a series of music performances at Stuk. Our intent was to see Panda Bear, some time experimental solo artist and one-third of avant garde band Animal Collective, but we were not averse to a bit of touristy-type shopping. For the most part, shopping in Brussells on a Sunday is a tad boring unless you have an insatiable appetite for chocolate, beer and waffles. Fortunately we found an amazing book store, Librarie Saint Hubert in the Galleries de Roi. Closely connected to the art scene, the store specialises in fine art and contemporary design and fashion titles. The space also doubles as a gallery where leading artists are invited to present contemporary limited edition prints (L’Image is currently on show until early February). It has such an intimate atmosphere and we whiled away the afternoon the store, amassing a nice little collection of books for our library including the just-released Bernhard Willhelm and Jutta Kraus.
Gronginger Museum worked with Bernhard and Jutta to create a retrospective of their last decade of work and this book marries in with the direction of the exhibition. What is interesting about the success of Bernhard Willhelm is that theirs is a fashion vision completely devoid of any commercial or trend-driven ideas. Designs are influenced by the eclectic: pop culture is referenced with native folklore; historical costume is fused with patriotism. Ideas are exaggerated to the extreme. The only constants obvious in each collection is colour and volume. Ten years seems a little early to consider a retrospective but what makes Bernhard Willhelm right for this kind of project is their relationship to art as well as the relationship between fashion and art. Fashion is artistic, it’s conceptual. In the same way that artists explore the complex, messy, ambiguities of modern life with a paint brush, Bernhard Willhelm practice contemporary fashion, inventing new images, aloof from accepted norms.
