Do we understand freedom? Does freedom mean to cross the boundaries set by society, to reject the world view of the group in which we live? Or is that deviation? Perhaps we rightfully adhere to limits and norms? Who decides what – right here and now – we call freedom?

 

We’ve often thought about this at The Courtyard Gallery. Freedom understood as a fight against totalitarianism – in the art works of Polish poster artists. Freedom of belief and religion – in the photography of David LaChapelle. Freedom from your body – in the multiplied avatars of Björk. Freedom of identity – following the idea of “life as a work of art” in Daniel Lismore’s pieces. Freedom to combine opposites – in Iris Van Herpen’s union of craft and technology.

 

What reflections on freedom will a designer as renowned as Gianni Versace provoke? I’ve noted down a couple of my own. Does the value of the dollar vary depending on the social status of its owner? Are masculine traits like power and strength less imposing in a woman? Is a well-groomed man, with a perfectly sculpted body peeking out from under an unbuttoned silk shirt, devoid of manliness?

 

The 80s. With the dawn of the first computers, a battle to ascend to the topmost floors of great glass skyscrapers wages on. The wolves of Wall Street are conquering the stock market, adding more and more zeros to their self-made fortunes. “New money” also means new ways of enjoying it. Gianni Versace perfectly grasps these needs – the desire for equality and to compete with “old money” clans. Thanks to his love of glamour and splendor, he quickly becomes the favorite designer of the nouveau riche, who through gold and color want to manifest their economic and social success. Gianni Versace turns that worship of the dollar of his times into the worship of the body. The new canons of beauty are personified by his muses – supermodels and the sensual male bodies from the Warsaw Ballroom gay club in Miami.

 

The 90s. During Versace’s Fall/Winter 1991/92 runway show, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington strut down the catwalk to the beat of George Michael’s song, “Freedom.” Meanwhile, fashion returns to a free-from-communism Poland. In Warsaw’s “Stadion Dziesięciolecia” (eng. Decade Stadium), Gianni Versace’s dazzling Barocco prints stand out among the knockoffs of Western brands. Along with Saskia Lubnow and Karl von der Ahé, the curator duo known as Dreamrealizer, I invite you on a fabulous journey to the world of fashion and freedom.