Museum of Applied Arts

100 BEST POSTERS 24

Germany Austria Switzerland

The 100 Best POSTERS 24 exhibition showcases exceptional poster designs from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This competition highlights outstanding graphic and typographic solutions while also reflecting current trends and successful design practices. Now in its 19th edition, this event is a testament to the vitality of poster art. The association 100 Beste Plakate e.V. is accompanying the competition with an extensive publication.

HELMUT LANG

Focusing on Helmut Lang’s vision of design and identity from 1986 to 2005, this exhibition underscores Lang’s role as a pioneer who embraced innovative artistic strategies long before he exited the fashion industry in 2005 to concentrate on his art practice. With a groundbreaking intermedia approach, Helmut Lang revolutionized traditional norms and set new benchmarks in clothing, graphic design, staging, architecture, experimental branding, interdisciplinary collaboration, and digital communication, reflecting an uncompromising foresight. In 1998, he became the first designer to stream a runway show online, preemptively anticipating the global transformation in fashion experiences. Concurrently, he introduced more than 1,000 taxi-top advertisements to promote the new website, which became a hallmark of New York City. Lang’s work transcended the notion of clothing, serving as a medium of communication and an integral part of a broader cultural narrative. His fashion presentations, termed “Séance de Travail” (work session), alongside his flagship stores in New York and Paris, advocated for a strategic reevaluation that favored experience over simple consumption. Collaborating with artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jürgen Teller, and others, he cultivated a new visual language that blurred the lines between creative disciplines, solidifying his role and influence within fashion and culture to this day. The exhibition provides an unprecedented glimpse into the visionary designer and artist’s mindset, opting out of showcasing physical garments in favor of a contemporary, mixed-media presentation that includes large-scale, site-specific installations alongside selected original materials from both the MAK Helmut Lang Archive and the artist’s personal archives.