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How does one follow the most-visited Costume Institute show in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the top three most-visited exhibits of all, one that grappled with the sacred issues of God, biblical allusion and religious ornamentation? How does one top "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination"?
With, apparently, an about-face to the profane.
On Tuesday, the museum announced its major Costume Institute exhibition for 2019: "Camp: Notes on Fashion," a play on Susan Sontag's 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp,'" the 58-point treatise that arguably brought the concept into the mainstream and helped make Sontag a literary celebrity. "The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration," she wrote in Partisan Review, at a time when the boundary between elite art and mass culture was disintegrating.
Cut to 2018. "We are going through an extreme camp moment, and it felt very much at the point of view of the cultural world, especially for marginalized cultures, Said Andrew Bolton, the Curator in charge of the Costume Institute, who said he had been exploring the idea for the last few years. "Whether it's pop camp, queer camp, high camp or political camp – Trump is a very camp figure – I think it's very timely."
In this, the exhibition is fully in line with its mission to use the deceptively popular lens of fashion to take on challenging topics, from the rise of China to religion, thus placing the museum at the center of a cultural cultural conversation instead of aloof on the intellectual and academic heights.
"At times like this, it is very powerful because of its ability to convey cultural ideas in seemingly accessible ways," Mr. Bolton said. "One of my favorite definitions from Susan's essay is when she talks about the idea of camp as failed seriousness. When it is 'campy,' it is more self-conscious, but we are going to look at both. "
There will be about 175 pieces in the show, including men's and women's wear, sculpture, paintings and drawings, divided into two sections. Mr. Bolton traces to Versailles, through his inclusion in the dictionary of the Victorian slang in 1909, and the Stonewall riots and "the use of the camp in the queer community," he said. said, adding that he thinks camp's storied history may surprise some people.
The second half of the exhibition will focus on the work of contemporary designers, from the use of trompe l'oeil to pastiche, irony, theater and exaggeration. Names from Charles Frederick Worth and Balenciaga to Miuccia Prada and Demna Gvasalia will be represented.
"These are not camps, but I have been working on the show," said Mr. Bolton said. "It has got such currency, it's going to be invisible, and part of my goal is to make it visible again."
At the time, Ms. Kawakubo wrote in a statement, "This is a very important and important thing to do." Mr. Bolton is hoping this show is a similar achievement in its viewers.
The exhibition is being underwritten by Gucci, the Italian brand that has experienced an extreme renaissance over the last few years under the creative director Alessandro Michele, with his vision of a grab bag world of muchness that includes boys and girls and sequins and tennis sweaters and granny glasses, an aesthetic that has actually been a celebration of the power of camp.
Mr. Michele wanted to be involved, he said, because "there are still a lot of misunderstandings about the meaning of this word." He continued: "Camp really means the unique ability of combining high art and pop culture; it is not kitsch. The Met exhibition will give contemporary significance to Sontag's perspective. "
The show is at the annual gala party on May 6 co-chaired by Anna Wintour a camp icon), editor of Vogue and artistic director of Conde Nast (which is also supporting the show); Lady Gaga, the superstar whose personal presentation and career are practically an ode to the transformative power of camp; Mr. Michele; the pop singer Harry Styles (a star of a current Gucci ad campaign); and the tennis star Serena Williams.
Ms. Williams's relationship to camp is somewhat unclear, but presumably it will be solved as she stands at the reception desk. Indeed, an argument can be made that the gala, which is often used in the exhibition, is arguably the ultimate high camp parade, ogled by millions. Just consider Katy Perry's archangel wings of last May or Rihanna's version of papal dresses.
Then consider the possibilities this time around.
An earlier version of a picture captioning with this article, using information from the Met, misidentified the designer for the "Too Much Irony!" Together. It is Moschino, not Virgil Abloh for Off-White.
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