For the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, MoMu, the Fashion Museum in Antwerp and Mercedes-Benz, invited Belgian art director Frederik Heyman and 4 fashion designers with exceptional signatures and outspoke styles—Bernhard Willhelm, Peter Pilotto, Henrik Vibskov and Mikio Sakabe—to create 4 installations.
At the heart of each installation stands a Mercedes-Benz Young Classic. From these cars from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, 4 cars were selected that today have an undisputed cult status: W 115, S 123, R 107, and C 126. Not only the intrinsic qualities of the cars themselves, but also the widely diverse people happy to be amongst their proud owners have shaped how we think about these vehicles. Today our memories of these cars merge with our continually changing perception of luxury, craftsmanship, functionality, and form exquisite material for fashion designers. Fashion only exists by the grace of our perpetual reinvention of the past, our rethinking of bygone style and fashion trends and our translation of these for the women and men of today. In their designs, we asked the designers to reflect on how the Youngtimers can still inspire us today and to interpret the widely varying connotations associated with these cars into a contemporary context.
For each Mercedes-Benz Young Classic, photographer and artist Frederik Heyman created a unique decor and used it only once in a photographic illustration. The design of tableaux and their photographic reproduction are central to Heyman’s oeuvre. Humour and a surrealist visual vocabulary are an intrinsic part of his artistic signature. His decors are built completely by hand, in collaboration with a team of sculptors and artists. In the final results, the handcraft, the construction and consequently also quality craftsmanship are always clearly traceable. Fashion designers Bernhard Willhelm, Peter Pilotto, Henrik Vibskov and Mikio Sakabe have added their own visions to the installations with each 3 new looks.
RECOLLECTION QUARTETT
Mercedes-Benz Young Classics Revisited by Frederik Heyman
19/01–23/01/2011, 12AM until 8PM (Friday 21/01, 12AM until 5PM)
Bühnenservice – Stiftung Oper in Berlin
Zinnowitzer Straße, Ecke Nordbahnhof, 10115 Berlin
Free entrance
www.recollection-quartett.com