CRITICAL CONSUMPTION

Micro trends, fashion giants releasing dozens of new collections every year, precarious conditions for textile workers, luxury brands shredding unworn garments, and ecosystems being destroyed by mountains of textile waste:

30.8.2023—8.9.2024

MAK Gallery

fashion—and the fashion industry—are increasingly coming under the spotlight for their approach to consumption, production processes, and sustainability. With the exhibition CRITICAL CONSUMPTION, the MAK is viewing with a critical eye a sector that is unrivaled in the way it drives consumption, the desire for the new, and rapid change.

For over a year, the MAK Gallery will play host to historical objects, contemporary designs, and artistic approaches that encourage us to contemplate the pressing issues of our age. Our consumption of fashion can be considered a paradigm of the mass consumption of capitalist societies in the Global North.

Analyze your own closet

Download PDF here

Exhibition space with objects dealing with critical consumption

A person with open mouth is about to swallow a pair of scissors

Original hand-knit damaged cardigan mended with various blue wools

This exhibition project is part of the MAK’s engagement with the 10×17 Sustainable Development Goals, an initiative that aims to promote conscious consumerism.

CURATOR

Lara Steinhäußer, Curator, MAK Textiles and Carpets Collection

EXHIBITION DESIGN
Robert Rüf

GRAPHIC DESIGN
Stefan Fuhrer

Media

Sylvie Fleury, Acne, 2014, Courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Gallery © Gunnar Meier, Schweiz

<BODY>Detail of a portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, inventor of the punch card-based Jacquard loom, woven in silk, 19th century © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic</BODY>

Detail of a portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, inventor of the punch card-based Jacquard loom, woven in silk, 19th century © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

Ti Non Ti Mode, dress for women made of paper fleece with a paisley pattern, Italy, 1965–1970 © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

<BODY><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Marie Bosch, Cloth sampler with polychrome embroidery, 2nd half of the 19th century © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic</span></div><body id="cke_pastebin" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; left: -1000px;">Marie Bosch, Cloth sampler with polychrome embroidery, 2nd half of the 19th century © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic</body></BODY>

Marie Bosch, Cloth sampler with polychrome embroidery, 2nd half of the 19th century © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

Ines Doujak, detail of the textile Fires, 2010 © Ines Doujak

MAK Exhibition View, 2023, Critical Consumption, MAK Gallery © MAK/Georg Mayer

Ines Doujak, photo of the performance Fires, 2011 © Ines Doujak

Celia Pym, Mended Brown Cardigan, 2023, Original hand-knit damaged cardigan mended with various blue wools © Celia Pym, photo: Michele Panzeri

MAK Exhibition View, 2023, Critical Consumption, MAK Gallery © MAK/Georg Mayer

Celia Pym, Mended Brown Cardigan, 2023, Original hand-knit damaged cardigan mended with various blue wools © Celia Pym, photo: Michele Panzeri

darned cloth sampler with embroidered monogram

Chasuble made of two reused textiles: one blue with floral patterns of the “bizarre silk” type and one pale pink silk fabric with gold edging

Anonymous, chasuble made of two reused textiles: one blue with floral patterns of the “bizarre silk” type and one pale pink silk fabric with gold edging, France, 1st half 18th c. © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

Tenant of Culture, To Be Titled, 2022, cap made of recycled padded envelopes, Courtesy Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam © Kristien Daem, M HKA.

Anonymous, customized silk embroidery (semifinished product) for a man’s white vest with polychrome floral pattern, 1780–1800 © MAK/Branislav Djordjevic

CRITICAL CONSUMPTION

Analyze your own closet

Media

Related

Green Museum

Special Fashion Week (31.10.–5.11.2023)