The V&A East Storehouse, in the English capital, will present to the public from next September an entire collection retracing the life of the artist, almost 10 years after his death.
Published on 04/11/2024 12:21
Reading time: 3min
It is the most anticipated exhibition in London. The David Bowie Center will open its doors in September 2025. More than 90,000 objects that belonged to the musician who died in 2016 will be compiled 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. The museum aims to be avant-garde, like the artist it honors.
A warehouse with glass walls, transparent floors, where the works are everywhere, as soon as you turn your head. This bias is assumed by director Gus Casely Hayfield: “It’s like a cathedral. You walk in and the objects surround you, you’re in the center. Unlike museums where there are lots of corridors and small rooms, it’s one huge room. It’s hard to get lost.”
“Choose your own journey through the David Bowie archives.”
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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 emphasizes. Visitors will be able to wander through different areas: small spaces with audiovisual activities, quieter places to study certain pieces.
The visit was not at all what the museum had initially planned. But he included 20 young people aged under 25 in the reflection. Most of them didn’t even know David Bowie. “We were going to talk about Ziggy Stardust and albums chronologically, from his birth to the latest creations he released, explains Maya Ardalla who spoke with these young people. But they said to 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?'”
“There are a lot of things about the process of him becoming a star that resonate with what young people might be feeling.”
Maya Ardalla, you Center David Bowieat franceinfo
“I think that David Bowie as a creator can resonate with what young people are experiencing, continues Maya Ardalla. He had questions about how to collaborate with someone, the successes, the failures, the yes, the no… In the center, we have tons of rejection letters from music agencies.” The museum will pay tribute to the artist with this desire to remain connected to current times. 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.
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