SUPERBODIES, the third Hasselt triennial, explores the fascination by many artists and designers for
the way in which our body secretly moulds and shapes our experiences. This exhibition does not just represent the body, it presents it in all of its often half-conscious functions. A large, interactive ensemble of works from visual artists, choreographers and fashion designers, allows us to see and feel the body as the source of our thoughts and
emotions. Upcoming and internationally established artists and designers operate at the boundaries between disciplines to unravel the mysteries of the body. The whole of the city of Hasselt qualifies as a stage.

On 11 March 2011 an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 hit Japan, thereby thoroughly rattling March's Japan Fashion Week and altering the normal course of the event in unusual ways. Now, half-a-year later, October's Fashion Week is the veritable phoenix rising from the ashes. In a country that’s amongst one of the world's biggest spenders on fashion, this is desirable. For those who cannot make it, Nowfashion online magazine publishes articles that trace the journey and build-up of JFW in October.

This show is just one of four different exhibitions (see design agenda – Z33/Belgium) that sees 50 artists & designers explore how we can and do change nature, and how this changes our view of the world. At the MMH is a ‘futuristic’ view on the year 2000 from fashion designers from the Sixties and a look at the possibilities of tomorrow. Reflecting the strong connection between fashion and scientific, industrial innovations, as well as social, cultural and environmental aspects, featured designers include Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin, Gijs Bakker, Emanuel Ungaro, Anita Evenepoel, Alexandra Verschueren, NatureVSFuture, Wieteke Opmeer and Christopher Raeburn.

This exhibition examines how artists and designers use clothing as a mechanism to communicate and reveal elements of our identity. Divided into four sections – Storytelling, Building, Belonging & Confronting and Performance - the show features work by 30 leading international practitioners including Marina Abramović, Andreas Gursky, Claudia Losi, Susie MacMurray, La Maison Martin Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Cindy Sherman, Helen Storey, Sharif Waked, Yohji Yamamoto and Andrea Zittel. Also on display are new works by Yinka Shonibare and Hussein Chalayan, commissioned especially for Aware by London College of Fashion and the Royal Academy of Arts. 

This survey of avant-garde Japanese fashion from the early 1980s to the present day not only highlights the impact that Japanese designers made on the world of couture in the late 20th century, with the innovative work of Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, but also features Kawakubo’s protégé, the techno-couturier Junya Watanabe, together with the acclaimed Jun Takahashi, and the new generation of radical designers including Tao Kurihara, Matohu and Mintdesigns. Curated by fashion historian Akiko Fukai, Director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, and designed by architect Sou Fujimoto, there’s also a full programme of talks, performances, workshops and late-night events.

This exhibition looks at the radical shifts in fashion photography in the 1990s and its influence on visual arts today, presenting 200 works of photography and original documents, along with an extensive programme of live events that illustrates the cross-fertilization and mutual influence of fashion design, photography and art. Expressed first and foremost in magazine such as i-D Magazine, The Face, Six, Visionaire, and Purple, here artists Wolfgang Tillmans, Mark Borthwick and Anders Edström ao, choose specific works from the era and present them in a contemporary context. Parallel events include performances and fashion shows by Walter von Beirendonck and Susan Cianciolo.

With some 100 ensembles on display this show takes an in-depth look at contemporary Japanese fashion, from avant-garde high fashion to street and sub-culture styles. Acknowledging the role of the Eighties Japanese ‘fashion revolution’ in an introductory gallery, the exhibition examines how dramatically Japanese fashion has changed over the last 20 years. Set against a mis-en-scène of 21st century Tokyo, the latest generation of designers (Chitose Abe of sacai, Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi of Matohu, and Hiroki Nakamura of visvim) is seen alongside Japan’s iconic school uniforms, Gothic Lolita styles and the Kamikaze suits worn by members of Japan’s Speed Tribe.

Wonder what Joan Craw ford would have thought of the order of billing? Here she features in an exhibition alongside the likes of Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Noel Coward and Winston Churchill. All portraits were taken by Edward Steichen (1879 - 1973) during his time as chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. But it's not all Hollywood, here the emphasis is on the fashion photography of a man who believed 'if you took a good photograph, the art would take care of itself'.

The ‘colour’ black has been a mainstay throughout fashion history. Paintings, historic costumes and contemporary fashion are brought together in this exhibition to illustrate the different phases black has gone through, many works highlighting its potential when applied to different textures and materials. Contributions from key Belgian designers such as Ann Demeulemeester and Dirk Van Saene (a fitting nod to the significant role Antwerp had in the 16th and 17th centuries for dying fabrics black) and international couture houses such as Chanel collectively demonstrate the timeless quality of black and the important place it has in fashion and costume design.

A total of 231 photographs arranged in six themed sections make up the backbone of this exhibition, which has been devised as a retrospective of fashion pictures by the Spanish photographer Manuel Outumuro and spans the last two decades of his work (1990 – 2010). A journey through both the fashion of the last 20 years and the simple, avant-garde classicism characteristic of Outumuro’s visual language, the images offer a perspective on the passage of time and visually chronicle garments of the era.