http://www.veroniquebranquinho.com/

From Wednesday 12 March to Sunday 17 August 2008 inclusive the MoMu (ModeMuseum Provincie Antwerpen (Antwerp Province Fashion Museum)) presents the exhibition MOI, VERONIQUE. BRANQUINHO TOuTeNUe and this in connection with the ten years' existence of the label of the designer Veronique Branquinho.

Duality and mystery form a constant in Veronique Branquinho’s world: attract and repel, play and push aside again. The image of the red velvet curtain on the exhibition poster, a wink at ‘The Red Room’ from David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks, comes back as the leitmotiv in the scenography. Heavy curtains are used to delimit the various areas. They create an intimate setting and dare the visitor to discover for himself, to reveal what lies hidden on the other side.

At the collection level we see that the Branquinho silhouette rather conceals than unveils. Stable values are, among other things, the long sweeping skirts with flounces, the capes, whether or not with a large hood that partly hides the face, and the polo neck sweaters, worn under jackets, blouses or bustiers. They are items of clothing that outline a slim silhouette, that are seldom explicit and that are specially intended to leave room for the sensual game of suggestion.

We come across duality at various levels with Branquinho, both in her image of woman and in her use of the combination of materials. In her work the woman is at the same time innocent and erotic, both playful and strict, mysterious and always complex. In her earlier work the transitional stage from girl to woman is at the centre, together with the emotional complexity of the rites of passage in the life of each woman. Figures such as the schoolgirl, the ‘Prom queen’ and ambiguous characters from films such as Histoire d'O, Heavenly Creatures and Bilitis populate Branquinho’s language of image.

In building up her silhouettes Veronique Branquinho likes to play with mixing elements from the men's and women's wardrobe, both as regards the cut and the materials. She has a weakness for substantial, classic English fabrics - such as tweed - that traditionally belong in a man's wardrobe, and combines these in the same silhouette with more flowing, female fabrics such as silk or fragile embroidery, for example. This duality often permeates the composition of the silhouette, whereby, for example, a very ‘constructed’ jacket with a lot of attention to the cut is presented with a simple, more ‘casual’, skirt. There is a continuous balance between extremes such as strict and playful, correct and nonchalant, soft and rough.

The Blitz collective - author Oscar van den Boogaard, actor Steven Van Watermeulen and b-architect Sven Grooten - was invited by Veronique Branquinho to sharpen the concept and the scenography of the exhibition together with her.

Guest curator: Veronique Branquinho in collaboration with Blitz

Scenography: B-architects