David Bowie's "cut-up lyrics" inform dedicated space at V&A East Storehouse
The David Bowie Centre, designed by local architecture studio IDK, opens at London's V&A East Storehouse this weekend with an archive of over 90,000 Bowie-related items and a public exhibition showcasing iconic, era-defining costumes.
Opening to the public on 13 September, the centre features an exhibition space with themed displays, reading areas and a study room, as well as an extensive archival collection.
It occupies a dedicated space in the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed V&A East Storehouse, which opened earlier this year, and includes a vast range of instruments, artwork, clothing, stage props, and paper-based memorabilia that showcase the multidisciplinary creativity of Bowie.
Designed by IDK, the centre's separate but connected spaces were informed by Bowie's ability to work across different genres and media, as well as his creative process, which is revealed in the centre's archive of handwritten lyrics, notes and sketches.
"IDK were inspired by Bowie's cut-up lyrics, oblique strategy cards and tools for experimentation, and being such a magpie and bringing so many different genres together, which I feel is so well integrated into the space," V&A East curator Madeleine Haddon told Dezeen.
The main exhibition space was divided into nine rotating displays that highlight Bowie's collaborators, influences and key moments in his illustrious career.
Around 200 items are showcased in the exhibition, including the blue suit worn by Bowie in the Life on Mars? music video and a red jacket emblazoned with the Aladdin Sane lightning bolt, both designed by Freddie Burretti.
Also exhibited is Bowie's asymmetric Ziggy Stardust catsuit by Kansai Yamamoto and Union Jack frock coat by Alexander McQueen, which was worn on the Earthling album cover.
Across from the exhibition is a large red table, where visitors can pore over catalogues detailing the 90,000 items in the Bowie archive.
Overhead, costumes in sealed Tyvek bags hang from a clothes rail, each visibly labelled so visitors can look up the items in the archive.
"We could only have a limited number of mannequins with costumes on view within the displays, and we know that people love the fashion and costumes so much, so we were struggling with how to get more on view," said Haddon.
"IDK came up with the brilliant idea of storing the costumes on the clothing rail."
Study rooms in the David Bowie Centre provide space for visitors to get a closer look at archival objects through one-to-one meetings booked with the V&A Archives team.
"[The study rooms] are part of our broader mission at V&A East Storehouse, which is to bring people closer to our objects and our collections and archives, and allow people to chart their own paths through them so that you feel empowered to explore and research on your own," said Haddon.
"For me, this is really important to think about in terms of inspiring the next generation of museum professionals," she continued. "You don't know if you want to be a curator or an archivist or a conservator if you don't get to see what all of that entails."
"It's also about peeling back the layers of the working museum to give people access to how and why we care for these objects."
The V&A acquired its 90,000-strong archive at the David Bowie Centre from the David Bowie Estate, Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
Spanning music, fashion, film, art and design, the variety of items on display aims to encapsulate Bowie's far-reaching talents.
"I hope that [visitors] will take away that David Bowie was an interdisciplinary artist who has an incredible impact upon our world, who was a collaborative individual, someone that we can look to be inspiring in terms of the creativity of others, particularly for young people," said Haddon.
Dezeen recently rounded up five highlights from the Design and Disability exhibition at the V&A's South Kensington museum, including a psychoanalytic-looking "squeeze chair".
Ahead of the opening of the V&A East Storehouse, the museum hosted an exhibition on the architecture of storage at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
The photography is by David Parry.
The post David Bowie's "cut-up lyrics" inform dedicated space at V&A East Storehouse appeared first on Dezeen.
