Zinzi Sheena Tove Larry / Portraits & Art Direction, November 2015

ZSTL - Photography/ Art Direction Michiel Keuper, 2015

In November I was comissioned by a collective of strong women; Zinzi Buchanan, Sheena McGrandles, Tove Sahlin and Laura Larry Arrington, to make portraits and do art direction for publicity material for their upcoming collaboration.

ZSTL - Photography/ Art Direction Michiel Keuper, 2015

ZSTL - Photography/ Art Direction Michiel Keuper, 2015

ZSTL - Photography/ Art Direction Michiel Keuper, 2015

ZSTL - Photography/ Art Direction Michiel Keuper, 2015

Unfinishing / Costume & Set Design, September 2015

Michiel Keuper - Drum Kit Sculpture on optical illusion plinth for Unfinishing by Martin Nachbar, September 2016

In September I designed costumes and set for Unfinishing, a piece by Martin Nachbar in collaboration with drummer Steve Heather. It premiered in Sophiensaele (more info on the piece click here). The starting point for the costume was a contemporary form of shamanism. For the set I investigated in doubling and used the two pillars in the space as a center point. I replicated the drum kit Claes Oldenburg style in canvas. Also I made four optical illusion carpets/ plinths.

Dance: Martin Nachbar/ Drums: Steve Heather/ Dramaturgy: Jeroen Peeters/ Lights: Bruno Pocheron/ Costume, Set: Michiel Keuper/ Coaching: Zoe Knights/ Management: Susanne Beyer.

(All photos, video: Michiel Keuper)

A Speculative History of Dutch Fashion Design @ HNI Rotterdam/ September 2015

A Speculative History of Dutch Fashion - Installation overview, September 2015.
Foto Johannes Schwartz/ HNI

One of the projects that kept me busy in August, was the re-creation of 13 toiles for the exhibition A Speculative History of Dutch Fashion in the Temporary Fashion Museum, just opened at Het Nieuwe Instituut/ HNI Rotterdam (to be seen till May next year).

These Simoulages, as I call them (since they are simulations of moulages; interpretations and not straight copies of originals), reflect on the design vocabulary from the so-called Arnhem School in the 1990s, now ArtEZ Fashion Design Arnhem.

A time when, especially at the fashion department of the Academy of Arts in Arnhem, the idea that fashion should present a new face every season is critically challenged. Designers start developing a reflective practice which investigates fashion itself and provide a commentary on the consumption of clothing and the fashion system. This translates into an extreme concentration on construction and a resistance to any form of decoration just for the sake of decoration.

From the catalog- "In the early nineties the School introduces a new legitimacy for the designer, namely through his cultural position. The autonomous designer moves away from the street towards the museum and, finally, the idea of 'fashion-as-communication' becomes subject of investigation."

 [photos below: Michiel Keuper]

The Temporary Fashion Museum / Article Spiegel.de, September 2016

HET NIEUWE INSTITUUT/Daniela Dostálková

The exhibition The Temporary Fashion Museum at Het Nieuwe Instituut / HNI Rotterdam, for which I created an installation, made it in the German press. 

From the article:
[English] "The unusual transformation of the whole museum follows the path of the product from the designer to the user and puts the user perspective into focus. The house celebrates the eternal creative renewal power of fashion and writes simultaneously - often casually, sometimes deliberately speculative, sometimes clearly evaluated - their history anew."

[German:] "Die ungewöhnliche Umwandlung des ganzen Museums verfolgt den Weg des Produktes vom Designer zum User und stellt dessen Perspektive in den Fokus. Das Haus zelebriert kreativ die ewige Erneuerungskraft der Mode und schreibt gleichzeitig - oft nebenbei, bisweilen bewusst spekulativ, bisweilen sauber evaluiert - deren Geschichte neu."

Click here to read the full article in Spiegel.de.

Simoulages / Work in process, August 2015

Making things - Back to the 1990s. Recreating dutch Fashion vocabulary for The Temporary Fashion Museum at HNI Rotterdam. #simoulages #HNI #workinprocess

Tanzsalon 3 on Dance & Visual Arts / Panel interview, June 2015

Tanzsalon No. 3 - Guests Günther Wilhelm, Michiel Keuper, Mariola Groener, Julian Weber, Sonja Augart (f.l.t.r.)

On June 18th I was invited to join a panel on the subject of Artistic Collaborations between Dance and Visual Arts organized by ZTB (Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin). The other guests were artist duo Wilhelm Groener (choreographers with a background in dance and visual art respectively) and, recent Berlin Art Prize winner Julian Weber (visual artist and choreographer), who started the evening with a participative performance. The panel was moderated by Sonja Augart and took place in Somos-Art Project Space.
I was interviewed about my visual work, and specifically about my collaborations with choreographers.

Interview for O.P.A. blog/ December 2014

In December 2014 I was interviewed by Peter Nijenhuis of  Ontwerp Platform Arnhem for the O.P.A.-blog on Keupr/van Bentm, the fashion label I ran with Francisco van Benthum till 2001. We talked about the fashion climate in the 1990s in Holland in general, on the abouts of the so-called Dutch Wave, the Fashion Institute Arnhem MA, presenting in Paris, being in Berlin and more. 

Click the link for the full article: http://www.o-p-a.nl/blog/michiel-keuper-berlijn

For those interested, beware, it's a longread (and sorry to non-Dutch readers; so far the interview is only in Dutch. A translation might be coming up).

Frieze d/e - Highlights of 2014

Holy! Two of the set designs I did in 2014 were mentioned in Astrid Kaminski's Highlights of 2014 on Frieze d/e Blog. Thank you for the opportunity Peter Pleyer and Jeremy Wade!

[English:]
"(...) In addition, Michiel Keuper, as already in my favorite participation piece, Jeremy Wade's Together Forever ( UA Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin), again made ​​a smart offer for the stage. This time, when he intervened with mottos of fashion, design and artifacts in the context of the pieces."

[German:]

"(...) Für mich die besten Ausnahmen und größten Gefühlsstücke des Jahres: Kat Válasturs fantastisch-dystopischer Rave Ah! Oh! – A Contemporary Ritual (zweite Serie aus The Marginal Sculptures of Newtopia, unterstützt vom Berliner Institut für Raumexperimente) und Peter Pleyers Visible Undercurrent.

Visible Undercurrent (UA Sophiensaele, Berlin) ist außerdem das Beste, was ich in diesem Jahr im Zusammenhang von Rekonstruktion und Reenactment gesehen habe: ein explizit ästhetischer und implizit politischer Rückblick auf Post-Postmodern Dance im Zeichen von AIDS und gender trouble der 1980er Jahre. Hier wird klar, wie aus Recherchematerial ein Stück wird. Schon allein das Kick-off-Gespräch der zwei gegensätzlichen Berliner Freie-Szene-Diven Sasha Waltz und Meg Stuart über ihr gemeinsames New Yorker WG-Jahr war ein historischer Moment. Darauf folgten sublime Reenactments ausgewählter 1980er-Jahre-Nummern mit einem sympathischen Quartett von Nachwuchs-Toptänzern. Außerdem hat Michiel Keuper, wie schon in meinem Lieblings-Partizipationsstück, Jeremy Wades Together Forever (UA Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin), wieder ein intelligentes Angebot für die Bühne gemacht. Diesmal, indem er mit Mottos aus Mode, Design und Artefakten in den Kontext der Stücke intervenierte."

Read the full article here: http://162.13.104.26/highlights-2014-astrid-kaminski/