Roussanoff remarks for the exhibition in Warsaw

The exhibition, Costume at the Turn of the Century, 1990- 2015, in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, is the seventh presentation, of its world tour.

This became possible thanks to the collaboration with the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum in Moscow, where the first production of the exhibition took place during the summer of 2015.

After great success in the USA at the University of North Carolina Asheville in the fall of 2016, the exhibition Costume at the Turn of the Century, 1990- 2015 went on and was showcased at the United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) Conference in St. Louis, MO in March of 2017. It was also featured at the World Stage Design (WSD) Conference in Taipei in July of 2017. Later, it continued its journey in the People’s Republic of China; first in April 2018 in Fuzhou during the International Costume Week and then at the CDEX International Conference and Expo in Shanghai in June of 2018.

The turn of the millennium was marked by great social, political, and economic reforms, innovative technologies and environmental awareness, as well it has drastically influenced our perceptions of Art, including the Art of Costume.

Costume at the Turn of the Century, 1990 —2015, offers a wide variety of costume designs from traditional forms of theatre to the so-called Avant-Garde fashion, performance, and installation.

The fundamental idea of this exhibition is to provide an opportunity to overview of costume design from around the world at the end of the 20th, and the beginning of the 21st century, without judgment or discrimination against the gender, race, political or economic environment that the artist had to live and work in. This exhibition does not attempt to create specific trends or directions in theatre or fashion design.

We are more interested in the diversity of opinions, recent and current developments in design and technology, various ideas and interpretation of the characters, artistic vocabulary, and unique language of storytelling provided by the designers as individuals, rather than a visually uniform concept for this exhibition.

Our intention is to expand the horizon of costume craftsmen and designers through showcasing a variety of styles and ideas.

Our goal is to create the newest artistic vocabulary for the next generation of theatre and fashion designers in the upcoming century.

We hope these amazing designs will inspire participants, as well as spectators of this exhibition.

Igor Roussanoff

Chief curator, Costume at the Turn of the Century, 1990 —2015