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OCEANISTA

Setting sail. Plotting a course. Is it plan sailing from now on – or did you miss the boat?

Our everyday language is full of sayings and phrases with nautical origins.

The same is true of fashion. Only here, the source of inspiration is not words and phrases but aesthetics.

May 2021

OCEANISTA,

M/S Museet for Søfart
Ny Kronborgvej 1
3000 Helsingør

April 21. 2021 – November 28. 2021

Who doesn’t own at least one blue-and-white striped T-shirt, who has not owned a sailor sweater or a yellow slicker? And it doesn’t stop there.

‘Fashion and seafaring have always had a long, passionate love affair. It is about shared dreams of exotic worlds. About a dedication to craft. A taste for uniforms. And of course, fashion loves a sexy sailor and the aesthetic longevity of the rich cultural history of maritime life,’ says fashion scholar and curator of the exhibition Maria Mackinney-Valentin in a press release from the Maritime Museum of Denmark in Elsinore announcing the OCEANISTA exhibition. The exhibition is currently on display at the museum, which recently re-opened after the latest Covid lockdown.

I visited the Maritime Museum of Denmark in Elsinore last week

The exhibition is definitely worth a visit. It was created in a collaboration between the museum’s regular staff and Maria Mackinney-Valentin, with exhibition scenography by Julian Juhlin.

The exhibits range from older and more recent international fashion to Danish crafts and design, including pieces by Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Iris van Herpens and Maison Margiela, Iben Høj and Mette Saabye, not to mention a wall with classic sailor knitwear in a wide range of varieties. Apropos of knitting, the exhibition also includes an amazing sweater by Laura Dalgaard titled ‘Caught in the Knit’. If you have a knack for knitting you can make the sweater yourself, as you can download the pattern from the museum website.

It is not just the exhibition that is worth a visit; so is the museum building itself, which opened in 2013. It was designed by Bjarke Ingels/BIG and is built around a former dry dock from 1955. Seen from a distance, the museum inside the dock is almost invisible; close up, one sees the gently sloping ramp that leads the visitors into an underground world filled with maritime stories and experiences for young and old alike.

The permanent exhibition is very traditional, and it is up for revision, as Museum Director Ulla Tofte announced in January, when the Maritime Museum of Denmark received grants totalling DKK 21 million from nine different foundations. I look forward to seeing history unfolded anew.

I did not stop in at the café, which is set in a lovely bright and open space; although an entire wall of beautifully wrapped tinned fish seemed tempting, I resisted. But I did not leave the museum shop empty-handed, which is currently the finest and best-curated Danish museum shop I know of. It is full of quality products with maritime references, several of them made specially for the museum in collaboration with various companies, big and small.

I am not alone in thinking the shop is in a class of its own. In 2020 it was nominated for the award as best museum shop by Leading Culture Destinations – an award that is sometimes referred to as the Oscar for museums. The LCD award for Best Shop went to the National Museum of Qatar in Doha.

Et er søkort at forstå, et andet skib at føre. Sætte sejl.
Kursen er stukket, eller er du sejlet agterud.
Vores sprog bugner af udtryk inspireret af søfarten eller direkte hentet fra søfarten.

Sådan forholder det sig også med moden. Her er det blot ikke ord og sætninger, som er inspirationskilden, men æstetikken.

Hvem ejer ikke mindst en blå- og hvidstribet t-shirt, hvem har ikke haft en sømandssweater eller en gul regnfrakke? Men her stopper det ikke.

 ”Moden og søfart har en lang, passioneret kærlighedshistorie. Det handler om at drømme sig til eksotiske verdener. Om en dedikation til håndværket. En smag for uniformer. Og så elsker moden den sexede sømand og den langtidsholdbare æstetik i søfartens rige kulturhistorie”, siger modeforsker og kurator, Maria Mackinney-Valentin i en pressemeddelelse fra Søfartsmuseet i Helsingør om udstillingen OCEANISTA, som nu kan ses på det netop genåbnede museum.

Jeg besøgte Søfartsmuseet i Helsingør i sidste uge

Udstillingen er i høj grad seværdig. Den er blevet til i samarbejde mellem museets faste personale og Maria Mackinney-Valentin, og udstillingsscenografien er skabt af scenograf Julian Juhlin.

De udstillede kreationer favner både international mode af ældre og nyere dato og dansk kunsthåndværk og design. Blandt andet kreationer fra Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Iris van Herpens og Maison Margiela, Iben Høj og Mette Saabye, ikke at forglemme en væg med klassiske sømandsstrik i mange afskygninger og, apropos strik, en fantastisk striksweater fra Laura Dalgaard med titlen ”Fanget i Garnet” – trøjen kan man, hvis man er ferm på strikkepinde, fremstille selv, idet opskriften kan downloades fra museets hjemmeside.

Er udstillingen seværdig, så er museumsbygningen, som slog dørene op i 2013, det i høj grad også.

Søfartsmuseet i Helsingør er tegnet af Bjarke Ingels/BIG omkring en gammel tørdok fra 1955.

På afstand er museet i dokken næsten usynligt, tæt på ser man den let skrånende rampe, som leder de besøgende ned i en underjordisk verden fyldt med maritime eventyr for både store og små.

Den faste udstilling er meget traditionel, og den skal revideres, meddelte museumsdirektør Ulla Tofte i januar, da Søfartsmuseet fik tilsagn om 21 millioner fra ni forskellige fonde. Jeg glæder mig til at se historien foldet ud på ny.

Cafeen, som er et pragtfuldt lyst og åbent rum, har jeg ikke prøvet. Selvom en hel væg med smukt indpakket fiskekonserves lokkede, så stod jeg imod. Til gengæld gik jeg ikke tomhændet fra museumsbutikken, som lige nu er en af de fineste og mest velkuraterede danske museumsbutik, jeg har kendskab til. Den bugner af kvalitetsprodukter med maritim reference, flere af dem fremstillet specielt til museet i samarbejde med større eller mindre virksomheder, ingen samarbejder nævnt, ingen glemt.

Jeg er ikke den eneste, som synes, at butikken er i særklasse. I 2020 var den nomineret til prisen som bedste museumsbutik af Leading Culture Destinations – prisen kaldes også for museernes svar på Oscar-uddelingen. Prisen for Bedste Butik ved LCD gik til Nationalmuseet i Doha.

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