The "National Silk Fashion Museum" opened in Hangzhou's landmark Hangzhou Tower. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
Hangzhou, February 27 (Tong Xiaoyu) Visiting shopping malls while also seeing a cultural relics exhibition, now in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. On February 26th, the "National Silk Fashion Museum" opened in Hangzhou's landmark Hangzhou Tower, where it will hold a long-term special exhibition. This is also the first time that China's state-owned museums have entered the commercial space of the city center.
It is reported that the museum is jointly built by the China Silk Museum and the Hangzhou Building. "It can be said that this is a deep integration of cultural and tourism merchants, and it also allows cultural relics to enter life and culture to enter the homes of ordinary people." Zhao Feng, director of the China Silk Museum, said.
The China Silk Museum is a national first-class museum with a collection of more than 40,000 pieces of domestic and foreign fashion. The "National Silk Fashion Museum" jointly created with Hangzhou Tower has two exhibitions, "Fashion Outline" and "Jindi Kaiguang".
Exhibition site. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
Zhao Feng said that "making cultural relics come alive" is to advocate that museums go to the masses of the people. Previously, there were also some cultural exhibitions in commercial spaces at home and abroad, and many museums also opened cultural and creative gift shops to commercial centers, airports, and stations, but they were not museums. The establishment of the "National Silk Fashion Museum" marks that the China Silk Museum has become the first state-owned museum in China to enter the commercial space in the center of the city.
The reporter saw that the museum also set up a special interactive experience area for the audience to restore the scene of the 20th century designer's studio. According to reports, on weekends, it will also cooperate with the exhibition and hold public lectures, handicrafts and other educational activities.
According to reports, the current China Silk Museum has arranged a special curator for the "National Silk Fashion Museum", and will launch four special exhibitions of fashion cultural relics and photo exhibitions here every year.
On the opening day, the "Fashion Outline - Selected Western Collections exhibition of the China Silk Museum" was also opened here. It is reported that a total of 80 pieces/sets of fine cultural relics were exhibited here. The exhibits are mainly clothing from the 18th to the 20th century, such as 18th century corsets and 19th century Romantic style dresses. At the same time, there are also works by famous designers such as Lang van, Balman and Saint Laurent.
Curator Wang Yilan said that there is not much difference between holding an exhibition in a commercial space and holding an exhibition in a museum. "We don't lose sight of the academic nature of cultural relics because we hold exhibitions in shopping malls."
Fashion on display on site. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
Speaking about the new museum, Wu Haiyan, a professor at the China Academy of Art, said moving the museum to a commercial center is a way to activate culture. She said that there are many museums in Zhejiang, especially in Hangzhou. How do you keep them from being "left out in the cold"? In addition to the planned exhibition, it is also necessary to actively "go out", rather than standing in place and waiting for others to "punch in".
"If museums can blossom everywhere in Hangzhou, I think they can also add more cultural confidence to the people." In Wu Haiyan's view, the establishment of the "National Silk Fashion Museum" has extended the tentacles of the museum and expanded the scope of cultural dissemination.
"Cultural relics and art are not on top. To make cultural relics come alive is to enter the lives of the people, change 'solo music' into 'public music', and make it the spiritual nourishment of the people's real life. Wu Hopes that in museums like this, "the more the merrier." (End)