It is the most anticipated exhibition in London. The David Bowie Center will open in September 2025 in a warehouse with glass walls and transparent floors. The works are everywhere, as soon as you turn your head, left, right, up, down. A bias assumed by director Gus Casely Hayfield. “It’s like a cathedral. You walk in and objects surround you. You are in the center, he explains. Unlike museums where there are lots of corridors and small rooms, this is one huge room. It’s hard to get lost.“
More than 90,000 objects that belonged to the star will be exhibited to tell the story of his incredible creativity. The collection was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, which offers it a brand new setting in the east of the English capital. There will be costumes, albums, instruments, drawings, manuscripts of his songs like Heroes et Ashes to ashes. Enough to make fans’ heads spin, laughs Madeleine Haddon, one of the curators. “We highlight transparency, access to everything and a visit that everyone creates, she said. Choose your own journey through the David Bowie archives.”
Visitors will be able to wander through different areas: small spaces with audiovisual activities, quieter places to study certain pieces. A visit which was not at all what the museum had initially planned. But he included 20 young people aged under 25 in the reflection. Most didn’t know David Bowie. “We were going to talk about Ziggy Stardust and the albums chronologically, from his birth to the latest creations he released. But they told us: You present David Bowie as an incredible thinker, a pioneer. Why show your work in such a classic way, as you would present any archive?“, says Maya Ardalla who spoke with them.
“I think that David Bowie as a creator can resonate with what young people experience in questions like: how to collaborate with someone, successes, failurescontinues Maya Ardalla. In the center, we have tons of rejection letters from music agencies. There are many things about the process of becoming a star that resonate with what young people may be feeling“. The museum will therefore open with this desire to remain connected to the current era. It is as much a creation as an exhibition that visitors will discover in a little less than a year. Access to the David Bowie center will be free .
A report by Richard Place, edited by Diane Warin.
