Glam! The Performance of Style at Schirn Kunsthalle

The Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt presents 'Glam! The Performance of Style' from June 14 to September 22, 2013. The exhibition explores the early 1970s as a period of identity exploration through art, music, fashion, and sexuality, contrasting it with the post-AIDS era of fear and individualism. It features works by David Bowie, Roxy Music, Amanda Lear, Guy Bourdin, Richard Hamilton, Marc-Camille Chaimowicz, Robert Malaval, Jack Smith, Katharina Sieverding, and Ulay. The show combines contemporary art and popular culture without hierarchy, addressing themes of androgyny, eroticism, gender studies, and kitsch. Curated with seriousness, it avoids superficiality and serves as a touching testimony of a bygone era. The review notes that today, sexuality and social connections occur on the clinical Internet, and Lady Gaga uses glam codes to create a monumental consumer product without genuine claim. The only missing element is an ambient fragrance of patchouli, vanilla, incense, and strawberry.