Curator: Ya'ara Keydar | Creative Director: Katy Reiss | Chief Curator of the Design Museum Holon: Mia Dvash | Lighting design: Amir Brenner, lighting simulations: Ella Cohen | Lighting supervision: Yaron Levin | Production manager: Maya Tevet | Technical support: Zadok Sofer | Installation and lighting fixtures: Danor | Special thanks to Erez Hadar | Photographs: Amir Brenner, Eden Brenner, Inbal Brenner |
"Alber Elbaz the Dream Factory" an exhibition celebrating the life and work of the international fashion designer who grew up in Israel, as well as his unique perspective, his joy, love of people, personal charm and talent.
"The only thing I don't do in my life is recap. I don't do retrospectives." Alber Elbaz 1961-2021.
This was the exhibit's creative team starting point as we were searching for the most accurate and exciting way to present Alber Elbaz's enormous talent and uniqueness. Curator Ya'ara Keydar reassembled Elbaz's last collection designed for the AZ Factory and staged it as a journey between the stations of his life.
Katy Reiss, the exhibition's creative director, whom herself had worked by Alber's side for over 15 years, turned Elbaz's first station in life - 'Holon' - into a pajama party filled with color and joy.
As part of the creative dialogue, we prepared simulations in which we illustrated the intention to turn this part of the display into a real party - with the use of smart lighting fixtures, garlands, mirror balls that send colorful light flickers on the surrounding walls, and to complete the picture - a rotating stage.
The Paris stage became a convention-breaking fashion show – with black and red colors and periodic furniture.
The station "Between Paris and New York" is designed as a set of still photographs in black and white with a checkered background which is also taken from the world of fashion photography. To complete the stylish image, two "flash-umbrella" columns are situated at the front of the display producing pulses of computer programmed lights synchronized to match the background music.
Amid the different worlds - the lighting design is intended to serve the unique character of each station of Elbaz's life. Part of the light sources are hidden as a means of atmosphere creation while others become part of the display. The carefully selected lighting fixtures combined the worlds of museum display and theater lighting, while creating a precise balance that delineates the various performance complexes, emphasizes, or obscures the unique colors, creating shadows, spots of light and dynamic textures adding a magical layer to the resulting visuals.
The peripheral corridor on the first floor leads the visitor through anchors and stations in Elbaz's life, exhibiting sketches he drew during his childhood, through his studies at Shenkar, his move to New York and his success in international fashion houses. The lighting emphasizes the exhibits on the curved wall and creates a rhythm of accents while on the other hand, soft lighting illuminates the wall and complements indirect light that creates intimacy.
In the display that simulates Elbaz's room, a table was designed from lighting fixtures – which serves as the sole source of light in the space, which looks mysterious and intriguing - with slight touches of light on the clothes sketches floating above the table. With the use of the unique light source, we sought to design an image which transforms Elbaz's ideas, as he expressed them in his sketches on the design table, into a foundation for creating life and building a world.
The dress designed by Albert Elbaz for Meryl Streep stands at the end of the corridor - and receives its own stage, with lighting in a unique shade that emphasizes the colors and glow
The red color that was beloved by Elbaz and appeared in many of his designs, was chosen as the dominant color for the entrance to the exhibition, for the staircase display, as well as for the corridor connecting to the second floor.
In the entrance hall to the upper gallery, the "Peace Dress" is displayed in a dynamic lighting display, in delicate light blue colors. Some see it as the movement of soft clouds in the sky, some view this as water ripples – but regardless, the dynamism of the lighting complements the dress design and wings and strengthens the circle of associations they create.
The second floor displays clothing designs of Elbaz's revolutionary fashion house - AZ Factory, along with various designer clothes which were designed especially for the exhibition held in Alber's memory in Paris.
The artistic approach to the lighting design on this floor was based on the observation and study of Alber's own use of dynamic and powerful lighting in his fashion shows.
The lighting distinguishes the unique designs situated on platforms - which received lighting accents from below and appear to be floating above the floor. Once every few minutes in sync with the change of the music and the video projections - the lighting turns into a show of MOVING LIGHTS that likens the exhibition hall to the atmosphere of a fashion show or a rock concert - an effect that injects liveliness and rhythm to those touring the exhibition - and is a tribute to the countless masterful displays inspired by the imagination and spirit of the creator Alber Elbaz.
The exhibition Alber Elbaz - The Dream Factory * is exhibited at the Design Museum Holon.
You are welcome to visit.
Amir Brenner | Septembre 2022