5. Negotiating Identities at the Yves Saint Laurent's Museum - Aurélie Samuel

Europe and Fashion: Questioning Identities and Cultures. EFHA Conference 2018

As the first temporary thematic exhibition since the opening of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris in October 2017, “Yves Saint Laurent: Dreams of the Orient” will bring together approximately fifty high fashion designs inspired by India, China and Japan. For the first time, these pieces from the collection of the Museum will be displayed in dialogue with Asian artworks borrowed from the Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet and private collectors bringing new perspectives on the couturiers’ work.

The aim of this paper is to show the concepts and theories related to the creation process of a temporary exhibition. An exhibition is a collective endeavour, requiring specific skills as well as human, financial and creative resources. The complexity of the making up of an exhibition has increased in the past years, pushing major institutions to professionalize their teams and open to new, non-scientific disciplines, previously foreign to the world of museums. This complex process includes several steps, from early conception to final achievement, in a context where new technologies and media play a new key role.