Starting September 15th, a new exhibition will be featured in New York City showcasing the latest womenswear collection of the designer collective, threeASFOUR, who also premiered their Spring 2014 in the museum during NYFW.
The designer-trio Gabi Asfour, Adi Gil, and Angela Donhauser all grew up in countries suffering great political turmoil and thus decided to make an artistic and social statement with a new womenswear collection and museum installation, that both communicate the importance of spirituality, cross-cultural identity, and pacifism.
“Gabi Asfour grew up during the Lebanese civil war; everyone was fighting with everyone. Adi Gil’s grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust and she grew up in Germany, which was a shock. Angela Donhauser is Russian and German and was born in Tajikistan. The three of us come from places where people have been at war with each other and we don’t believe in that,” the designers said to Fashionista.
The trio further explained that the exhibition is inspired by a variety of sacred architectural shapes, such as the geometry and tile patterns of synagogues, mosques, and churches. The exhibition title “Mer Ka Ba”, comes from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and unites the hieroglyphs mer (rotating light), ka (spirit), and ba (body), as a metaphor of transcendence. The exhibition itself includes a selection of threeASFOUR 3D-printed dresses, designed in collaboration with artist Bradley Rothenberg, a mirror structure exhibition design by architect Christian Wassman, 3D-video animations by Alex Czetwertynski, and music by Raz Mesinai.
“We’re communicating unity, because we are combining the one and the whole and showing the intersections between all cultures, this universal consciousness that manifests itself in religion,” they added.
