Veiled, Unveiled! The Headscarf October 18, 2018 – February 26, 2019
A piece of fabric forms the focus of this exhibition. It is much older than Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Long before the birth of these religions, a headscarf denoted social differences in ancient Mesopotamia – and its absence women’s sexual vulnerability. Today, it lies before us weighed down with countless meanings. And far too often it still represents a man’s word on a woman’s body.
The fabric that pious women use to cover their head, their face and frequently also their entire body whips up feelings. But the commandment that women cover their hair has been part of European civilisation for centuries. Its history stretches from the beginnings of Christianity until today.
For Christians, the veil became a symbol of honour, modesty and virginity. The Apostle Paul demanded that women cover their faces with a veil when they talk to God. Loose hair was regarded as immoral, only the Virgin Mary is occasionally depicted wearing her hair in this way. A covered head was the prerogative of married women, and of nuns. A bereaved woman put on widow’s weeds. In the Late Middle Ages some European cities passed sumptuary laws that stipulated how women should cover their head and neck.
In the early 1920s, the Pope deplored the imprudence of women who disregarded all modesty by dancing wearing “indecent” dresses. During the Austrian Ständestaat and after the Nazi annexation of Austria headscarf and dirndl signalled both the wearer’s fealty to her home country and her down-to-earthness. In the 1950s, the printed headscarf became a fashionable accessory that symbolized luxury, elegance and emancipation. Step by step the power structures of gender relations were critically examined. But in Austria the patriarchal marriage-model was only replaced by a more equal one in 1976.
Some Muslim girls and young women are forced to veil themselves when meeting someone who is not a member of their family because men would otherwise regard them as sinful and “available”; others, however, create a kind of street-wear look that is both colourful and cheeky, sexy and demure. In Iran, female activists with loose hair take up positions at busy crossings and wave their headscarf in the air as a sign of protest, while in the West female designers revive the fashions of the 1950s and include vintage headscarves in their collections. “Modest fashion” is the name of a fashion trend that focuses on showing less flesh; it has evolved into a worldwide billion- dollar-business irrespective of a particular religion. Queen Elisabeth II still sports an Hermès headscarf as a kind of personal branding – and not only when she is out riding.
The Weltmuseum Wien presents seventeen independent position on the headscarf, designed to broaden our view of this small piece of fabric by highlighting novel (and perhaps even unexpected) aspects.
Curator of the exhibition: Axel Steinmann Duration: October 18, 2018 - February 26, 2019 Press conference: October 16, 2018, 10 am Formal opening: October 17, 2018
Contributors to the exhibition Susanne Bisovsky Gebhart Blazek Reinhard Blumauer Timna Brauer Gerard van Bussel Ingrid Gaier G.R.A.M. Nilbar Güreş Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek Suzanne Jongmans Tina Lechner Bele Marx & Gilles Mussard Christian Maryška Renate Anna Menzel Kathrin Pallestrang Mitra Shahmoradi Axel Steinmann PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS
Key visual of the exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
Suzanne Jongmans Mind over Matter – Voltar Foto auf Hahnemühlepapier, Edition von 8 © Courtesy Galerie Wilms
Suzanne Jongmans Mind over Matter - Solitude © Courtesy Galerie Wilms Suzanne Jongmans Julie - portrait of a Lady © Courtesy Galerie Wilms
Viennese Chic 2018 © Susanne Bisovsky, Foto: Bernd Preiml
Viennese Chic 2018 © Susanne Bisovsky, Foto: Bernd Preiml Viennese Chic 2018 © Susanne Bisovsky, Foto: Bernd Preiml
Viennese Chic 2018 © Susanne Bisovsky, Foto: Bernd Preiml
Nilbar Güreş Soyunma/Undressing 2006, HD Single Channel Video, 06:19 min., colour, sound Photo: Nicole Tintera © Courtesy Galerie Martin Janda, Wien Tina Lechner Xiao 2018 Gelatin silver print, 90 x 70 cm © Courtesy Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna
Award-winning head scarf design Fashion drawing from the archives of the fashion school of the city of Vienna at Schloss Hetzedorf, 1964 © Modeschule der Stadt Wien im Schloss Hetzendorf © Archive of the Fashion Institute Vienna, Hetzendorf Palace
Pencil Sketch of a Veiled Woman Anonymous, Iran, Teheran, 1928 Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband Ludwig Gustav Alois Zöhrer Kel Rela Tuareg Algeria, Tamanrasset, 1935 Weltmuseum Wien, Photo Collection © KHM-Museumsverband
Christian woman Turkey, before 1886 Weltmuseum Wien, Photo Collection © KHM-Museumsverband
The Virgin of Guadalupe Los Angeles, USA, 2018 Weltmuseum Wien, North and Central America © KHM-Museumsverband Portrait of a Woman with Turban: Clio, Muse of History Copy after Domenico Zampieri, otherwise Domenichino Attributed to Andreas Nesselthaler, c.1800 Canvas, 69 × 52.3 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband
Gerda Bohm Ayt Haddidou woman in festive costume Morocco, Central High Atlas, 1959 Weltmuseum Wien, Photo Collection © KHM-Museumsverband
Viennese woman in “Sart” dress Vienna, 1927 Weltmuseum Wien, Photo Collection © KHM-Museumsverband Bridal Headscarf, Mendil, Berb. Tamendilt Tunisia, Tamezret, mid 20th cent. Wool, cotton, silk, synthetic fibre, pigment 100 × 76 cm (with tassels) Renate Anna Menzel Coll. Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband
Turban Cloth, Keffiyeh Syria, Palmyra, 1831 Cotton, silk 198 × 90 cm Carl Alexander Anselm Freiherr von Hügel Coll. Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband
Headscarf for Men and Women Tunisia, Sfax and surroundings, before 1914 Cotton, silk 128 × 129 cm Alfred Weidholz Coll. Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband Women’s Headscarf Turkey, Bursa, Uludağ; Yörük, before 1985 Cotton, silk, metal sequins, , glass beads, pigment, 93 × 84 cm Werner Finke and Markus De Zordo Coll. Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband
Headscarf and Shawl, Rusari Iran, Khorasan, Zāvīn, c.1976 Silk 167 × 160.5 cm Dorothea Azizi Coll. Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband
Tzute, Headscarf for Members of a Cofradía with Doubleheaded Eagles K’iche’ Maya, Santa Catarina Nahualá, Dept. Sololá, Guatemala, before 1980 Cotton, viscose 121 × 104 cm Weltmuseum Wien © KHM-Museumsverband OPENING HOURS
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