PROJECTS

Helmut Lang archive Initiative

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Through years of collaboration with Helmut Lang, an archive was created in New York and donated to the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) in Vienna in 2011. Since then, the archive has undergone extensive development. Today, it remains housed at the MAK, where it will be featured in a major exhibition curated by Marlies Wirth in 2025. 

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​Helmut Lang in an interview 2011 during the donation mentioned:

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"Yes, my friend Verena Formanek, who founded the 'Design Info Pool' at the MAK, has put a lot of effort into this in the past. After working with Peter Noever (former director of the MAK) on an exhibition for the museum in recent years, I decided to donate the most important parts of my archive to the museum. So, all the videos from the fashion shows, the entire graphic and architectural material, all the lookbooks, Polaroids, and show programs. All the advertisements we ever ran, from those by Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Weber, and Elfi Semotan to those by Jürgen Teller and David Sims. But also the entire graphic material and even the advertising signs that were featured on New York taxis. The MAK seemed like the right place for this, not only because I used to teach at the University of Applied Arts, but also because design and architecture are strongly represented there." Interview 11. August 2011, Der Standard

 

Lang: Ja, meine Freundin Verena Formanek, die den "Design Info Pool" im MAK gründete, hat sich in der Vergangenheit sehr darum bemüht. Nachdem ich mit Peter Noever (ehemal. Leiter des Mak, Anm.) in den vergangenen Jahren an einer Ausstellung fürs Mak gearbeitet habe, habe ich beschlossen, die wichtigsten Teile meines Archivs diesem Museum zu schenken. Also all die Videos von den Modeschauen, das gesamte grafische und architektonische Material, alle Lookbooks, Polaroids und Showprogramme. Alle Anzeigenmotive, die wir je geschaltet haben, von jenen von Robert Mapple-thorpe, Bruce Weber und Elfi Semotan bis hin zu jenen von Jürgen Teller und David Sims. Aber auch das gesamte grafische Material und sogar die Werbeschilder, die auf den New Yorker Taxis zu sehen waren. Das MAK schien mir dafür der richtige Platz, und zwar nicht nur deswegen, weil ich früher an der Universität für angewandte Kunst unterrichtet habe, sondern auch, weil Design und Architektur dort stark vertreten sind.Interview 11. August 2011, Der Standard