Dress Code

Clothing, the second skin which personifies the person wearing it, becomes, in certain contexts, the symbol of a socio-cultural identity. In the history of clothing, it has appeared from the beginning as a set of garments that covered the human body to protect it and adorn it. Throughout the history of art, artists have represented clothes essentially in a flat way in various pictorial or ornamental forms. Today, however, clothing has emerged from this two-dimensional representation to establish itself on the artistic stage in its own right. Contemporary artists use clothing as a material, a medium, a symbol and above all as a substitute for the “body” subject. In this way, they invite us to reconsider the so-called established material facts, our way of appearing in order to be. Through this exhibition, we are interested in the codes implied by these pieces of sculptured fabric and the way in which contemporary artists re-use clothes to express a social criticism. Far removed from the world of haute couture, clothes demonstrate here the extent to which the class divide relies on the dress code.