‘There is no future without a present, as there is no present without a past.’
Alexandra Exter

Julie Lynch APDG and Chris Baldwin – Australia – Outside the State Historical Museum, Red Square, Moscow

Earlier this year I travelled to Moscow to take part in the Innovative Costume Project at the State Historical Museum, Red Square. As Australian curator, I was very excited to see costume works from 50 nations, and to attend curated costume performances and talks. As part of A.A. Bakhrushin Museum CEO and Head of Project Dmitry Rodionov’s exhibition introduction, he asks, ‘What is innovation in art?  In other words, something new or updated thanks to the earlier achievements?’  He expands this thought by observing that ‘the whole history of art is a dynamic update of the aesthetics of styles and genres […] a constant movement: “Innovatio – towards change”’. Having now seen and participated in this event, I will return to his question later.

Panorama of adjoining exhibition spaces, with Australian designer Chris Baldwin’s costume far left, State Historical Museum, Moscow

During the exhibition’s preparations, the question around the meaning of “innovative” was at the forefront of our international conversation. There were fears that the uncompromising criteria of “Innovative” threatened representation of the subtlety in gesture and meaning in costume. Indeed, my curatorial strategy was to choose Australian work bold enough that it would stand out amongst the anticipated European avant-garde submissions.  Consequently, I believed, that no matter how innovative the work may have been in performance, it needed to be overtly and visually innovative to be seen by the overstimulated eyes of the final international curatorial judges. After lengthy national call outs, 20 Australian designers’ works were submitted and 7 designers succeeded in the final selection in a round of 250 designers from 50 nations (an average of 5 per nation). Congratulations to: Christopher Baldwin, David Fleischer, Michael Hankin, Sabina Myers, Dillan Tomkin, Emma Vine, and Garett and Will Huxley Performance Art team, (6 of the 7 are NIDA graduates).

Julie Lynch APDG and Chris Baldwin at the Opening Ceremony – State Historical Museum – Moscow, Red Square

Artistic Director Igor Roussanoff described the ambition of the project as ‘At this exhibition, you will see a range of work for theatre, fashion, and performing arts from designers who began their professional careers between 2000 and 2019.  This project continues research into the development of modern theatrical-visual thinking in the spirit of the previous exhibition, COSTUME AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY: 1990-2015, which provided the international community the premier opportunity to become more familiar with the art and development of theatrical costume of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  This exhibition presented a wide palette of work by artists for both experimental and traditional forms of theater and created a unique opportunity to consider the main and important trends in the development of the design of theatrical costumes on a global scale.  It showcased over 1,500 pieces by more than 250 designers from 30 countries representing different generations, social status, and cultural heritages.’

FLOCK2018 – Force Majeure and the Commonwealth Games Festival ’18- Choreographed by: Danielle Micich – Costume Design Michael Hankin

The aim for this new exhibition was wonderfully expressed by Chief Curator Susan Tsu ‘Representing two years of active curation and organization, our exhibition, sharing the work of the world’s young theatre and fashion visionaries, is enormously exciting and meaningful to me. Theatre holds a mirror up to life’s events, and costume design brings visual acuity to the human condition.  The exhibition in Moscow offers a way of bringing people together to learn about each other’s challenges, hopes, fears, and premonitions of the future. In our own small way, I hope the work will promote greater understanding and a coming together of the nations of the world.’

Daphne Karstens, Netherlands – Samuel Beckett’s “PING”, Sadler’s Wells and performed at Innovative Costume

To create the exhibition 1323 submissions from 938 designers were collected. 112 Curators and their assistants from 60 nations engaged in Phase I (National) Curation.  Igor Roussanoff (Artistic Director) and Susan Tsu (Chief Curator) then selected 300 exciting submissions augmented by 63 videos from 50 nations in Phase II for the curators at the Bakhrushin Museum to begin Phase III Curation- determining the final selections. From this, 250 designers were selected to present over 300 designs. The exhibition contains costume designs in renderings, photographs, videos and 3-dimensions from designers who entered their fields and created innovative work between 2000-2018.  Costume design for cinema, opera, ballet, theatre, devised work, installations, performing arts, and fashion was included. Inventive designs of students, young professionals and independent costume and fashion designers, as well as makers were featured.

Sasha Frolova – Russia –  Performance in Catherine Hall of the Tsaritsyno Grand Palace, Moscow, Russia – http://www.sashafrolova.com/works.html

One of the most exciting aspects to this exhibition was to see how the exhibition had grown in world participants, particularly from non-Western contributors which had been poorly represented in the 2015 exhibition.

Yu Wenyan – China and Xu Zhu – China –  State Historical Museum, Red Square, Moscow

As the Australian curator of the first international exhibition in 2015 (Costume at the Turn of the Century: 1995 – 2015, link below), I could compare both exhibits and observed a dramatic shift between how established designers of the latter half of the 20^thC and early 21stC worked (exhibited in the first exhibition), to how young designers are working this century. From this recent exhibit, I could see a seismic cultural shift, where costume appeared to be less about the relationship between professional actor/dancer/singer but instead more as a tool for the artist’s self-expression and enterprise; where so many of the projects were self-generated and often performed by the artist themselves. This was a revealing change to the costume culture of 2015 which had been characterised by established designers of operas, musicals, dance-works, ballets, events and dramas. Most of these designers worked from established texts, librettos or music and by invitation from a director or choreographer and contracted by a producing company. In the quest to exhibit “innovation”, deliberately or not, curatorial decisions conveyed a story of the costume designer’s role and costume’s potential changing significantly. Indeed, the novice patron may have easily concluded that costume design opportunities for film and mainstream theatre have significantly diminished – or are even endangered. They may have also understood that costume design has become less collaborative – more singular in expression and enterprise; created more often for rave parties, video clips, fashion photo-shoots, installation art and made and performed by the artist. I will call these “selfpressiveprise costumes”. While these kinds of costumes are extremely important, I felt the exhibition was dominated by these examples, whereas the film and theatre costumes that Susan mentioned earlier were under-represented by comparison. Nevertheless, I believe there is a reason why this form has grown rapidly; as an outsider generationally, but as an insider with a significant education perspective, I have witnessed young designers facing complex and global problems, and their art reflects these challenges, which may not necessarily be reflected in a 19^th century play script, but rather as a more direct and overt reaction to a new cultural evolution. As Dmitry states in his exhibition aims, ‘this reaction is extremely important for all of us to understand the global mental shifts in the social and cultural space of the new century and the millennium of human civilization’.  Excellent and exciting examples of “selfpressiveprise” costumes at the exhibition included:

Margaret Lisiecka – Poland –  “Where Do You Come From?”, Costume Performance Installation

Valentina Steffanescu – Romania “Transient Heart”

“Transient Lungs”, Costume Artwork/Installation

Bart Hess – Netherlands – ”Digital Artifacts” Costume Performance Installation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9d-pvZm_Nw

Roman Ermakov – Russia, Live Sculptures – http://romanermakov.com/

Comparing costume design in Australia, there are many diverse opportunities for the costume designer beyond the “selfpressiveprise” trend at ICOT21C. As Head of Design at NIDA, I know that costume designers are still working in the most collaborative of fields and are still likely to be able to shape a career and earn an income in the fields of theatre, film, games, events and interactive performance genres. Unlike the European model, there is limited funding for costume design as art and self-expression in Australia. An example of a next generation designer and ICOTS1C exhibitor – Sabina Myers can be found here speaking about her first years’ experiences after graduating from NIDA –  https://www.frankie.com.au/item/8509-creating-costumes-with-sabina-myers?fbclid=IwAR2kYrlP9rrFbLX-BdcauA_GAbvE70_aOS9mgwk6o8CEI5X3qdQkdB9mAGA#.XZCsz8QP1pA.facebook I also encourage you to visit link 3 below to better understand the scale and experience of the exhibition.

Sabina Myers – Australia – Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and work by Garett and Will Huxley, State Historical Museum, Moscow

On reflection, did the exhibition under the selection criteria “innovative” create a platform for an exciting exhibition? “Yes, wholeheartedly”. Did it provide a concise overview of the culture and practice of young costume designers world-wide as the earlier ‘wide palette’ exhibition did for established designers in 2015? “Less so”. Did it matter? “Probably”. Nevertheless, the exhibition’s narrow – yet exciting and excessive view, expanded the world’s leading designers’ and teachers’ dialogue and exchange – particularly across international diversity; promoted costume design, and incited the need for the next exhibition. I only hope that the brilliant and tireless curatorial team of Dmitry Rodionov, Igor Roussanoff and Susan Tsu will lead the way again in our global costume conversation. Costume comrades, I hope to see you in Moscow again soon!

Additional links –

1. Costume at the Turn of the Century: 1995 – 2015: http://www.worldcostumedesign.com/
2. Innovative Costume of the 21^st Century: The Next Generation: https://innovativecostume.secure-platform.com/a
3. Curated video of Innovative Costume opening and experience: https://yadi.sk/i/p7dCnxtg8cNy0A
4. To take part in this global design conversation, join FB page DesignLABsharingideas – https://www.facebook.com/DesignLABsharingideas/?modal=admin_todo_tour