When a blockbuster new Helmut Lang exhibition opens in Vienna on December 10, it will have been 7,625 days since the designer announced his departure from his brand. MAK’s show “Helmut Lang Séance De Travail 1986–2005,” demonstrates how Lang, now working as an artist, is still influencing how we experience fashion—and not only with regard to what comes down the catwalk, but also in terms of brand identity, as expressed internally, through retail, and via external communication. The museum is uniquely positioned to do all this as it is home to the largest Lang archive. Thanks, in part, to a donation from the designer in 2011, it encompasses 10,000 items, some of which are garments, but the majority being materials—lookbooks, advertising campaigns, Polaroids, proofs, tear sheets, backstage passes—that document the unseen work that went into building the iconic label.
One of the aims of “Helmut Lang Séance De Travail 1986–2005” is to fulfill the designer’s wish that MAK’s holdings constitute a “living archive.” “I hope it inspires others to have the courage to find their own voice. The past is never easier than the present; the present is always the opportunity,” the designer said in a statement.
Over the course of two years and with much creativity, MAK’s General Director Lilli Hollein has been addressing Lang’s total legacy. The upcoming show in Vienna is a kind of bookend to last year’s “Helmut Lang: What Remains Behind,” an exhibition in Los Angeles of Lang’s sculptures at the MAK Center’s Schindler House. Yet the categorization of one exhibition as being dedicated to art and the other to fashion is one that Hollein would refute.Helmut