Museums, foundations, and institutions attract vacationers with a rich offer, giving them the chance to spend exciting days dedicated to culture. For those seeking discoveries, such as the Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, or wishing to revisit haute couture history with Italian designer Giorgio Armani and French couturier Paul Poiret, or retracing the works of young Black and Asian women artists, the Modem team selected some exhibitions from London, Paris, and Milan.
LONDON
Connecting Thin Black Lines 1985 - 2025
Until September 07, 2025
ICA – 12 Carlton House Terrace - SW1Y 5AH
This major group exhibition and event programme curated by Lubaina Himid celebrates 40 years since The Thin Black Line, the groundbreaking group show of young Black and Asian women artists at the ICA in 1985. Works by all of the original artists, Brenda Agard, Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce, Chila Kumari Burman, Jennifer Comrie, Himid, Claudette Johnson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan, Marlene Smith, and Maud Sulter, will be shown together for the first time since 1985. Looking forward as much as back, the exhibition features new commissions as well as artworks made over the past four decades. Extending beyond the gallery space, a rich programme of film screenings, talks, music, and live performances brings to life Himid’s original ambition for a multi-disciplinary Black arts festival across the ICA’s exhibition, cinema, and live spaces.
Leigh Bowery
Until August 31, 2025
Tate Modern – Bankside - SE1 9TG
Leigh Bowery’s short but extraordinary life left a distinct, undeniable mark on the art world and beyond. An artist, performer, model, TV personality, club promoter, fashion designer, and musician, Bowery took on many different roles, all the while refusing to be limited by convention. From his emergence in the nightlife of 1980s London through to his later daring and outrageous performances in galleries, theatres, and the street, Bowery fearlessly forged his vibrant path. He reimagined clothing and makeup as forms of painting and sculpture, tested the limits of decorum, and celebrated the body as a shape-shifting tool with the power to challenge norms of aesthetics, sexuality, and gender. Embracing performance, club culture, and fashion design, Bowery created some of the most iconic images of the 1980s and 90s that continue to resonate, with his influence seen in the work of figures such as Alexander McQueen, Jeffrey Gibson, Anohni, and Lady Gaga.
Ed Atkins
Until August 25, 2025
Tate Britain – Millbank - SW1P 4RG
Ed Atkins is best known for his computer-generated videos and animations. Repurposing contemporary technologies in unexpected ways, his work traces the dwindling gap between the digital world and human feeling. He borrows techniques from literature, cinema, video games, music, and theatre to examine the relationship between reality, realism, and fiction. This career-spanning exhibition features moving image works from the last 15 years alongside writing, paintings, embroidery, and drawings. Together, they pit a weightless digital life against the physical world of heft, craft, and touch. Atkins uses his own experiences, feelings, and body as models to explore themes of intimacy, love, and loss. For Atkins, the exhibition represents a reimagining of the messy, unraveling realities of life.
PARIS
Azzedine Alaïa Thierry Mugler
Until August 31, 2025
Fondation Azzedine Alaïa – Rue de la Verrerie - 75004
The exhibition was born from the friendship between Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler. Behind their successes, there is a long story of support and admiration, which shaped and influenced their creations for over three decades. After meeting in 1979, Alaïa designed a series of tuxedos presented at Mugler’s show that same year. This collaboration encouraged Alaïa to become a designer himself. Thierry Mugler strongly encouraged him, and his support proved both vital and unfailing. Alaïa introduced Mugler to top fashion journalists and even organized his very first New York show. Contemporaries and friends, both deceased within six years of each other, the two designers showed deep respect for each other's careers throughout their lives. Their daywear and eveningwear echoed each other, dictating a four-handed fashion style that was the hallmark of contemporary fashion. Azzedine Alaïa, the couturier and collector behind a vast and renowned fashion heritage, has preserved over 200 Thierry Mugler-branded creations, some 40 of which are exhibited here in dialogue with his archives.
Paul Poiret, la mode est une fête
Until January 11, 2026
Musée des Arts Décoratifs – 107 Rue de Rivoli - 75001
The musée des Arts décoratifs present sa première grande monographie dédiée à Paul Poiret (1879-1944), iconic figure of Parisian haute couture from the beginning of the 20th century. Considered the liberator of the female body from decorum, Paul Poiret renewed the fashion. "Paul Poiret, the fashion is a fête" offers an immersion in the universe that inspired the creator of the Belle Époque in the New Year. The exhibition explores his creations in the domains of fashion, decorative arts, perfume, party, and gastronomy. Through 550 works (clothing, accessories, beautiful arts, and decorative arts), the exhibition shed light on the lasting influence of Paul Poiret and revealed the legacy of his creative genius. A fascinating journey to meet a man whose heritage continues to inspire contemporary fashion designers, from Christian Dior in 1948 to Alphonse Maitrepierre in 2024.
Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces
Until August 24, 2025
Louvre Couture – 99 Rue de Rivoli - 75001
In consideration of the Louvre’s encyclopedic immensity, this exhibition follows a methodological approach geared towards exploring the history of decorative styles, art professions, and ornamentation through the galleries of the Department of Decorative Arts, where textiles are omnipresent, though generally in tapestries and other décor items rather than in articles of clothing. Over a nearly 9,000-square-metre space, 65 designs are displayed, along with several accessories, newly illuminating the close historical dialogue that continues to take place between the world of fashion and the department’s greatest masterpieces, from Byzantium to the Second Empire. Each of these garments and accessories is on special loan from the most iconic fashion houses, both long-standing and recent, in Paris and throughout the world.
MILAN
Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025
Until December 28, 2025
Armani Silos – Via Bergognone da Fossano 40 - 20144
Presented for the first time in 2005 in Paris, the capital of haute couture, the Giorgio Armani Privé collection immediately emerged as a new expression of Armani style, both complementary to and distinct from prêt-à-porter, yet unified by the pursuit of a linear, elegant, and refined signature style. This exhibition brings Giorgio Armani Privé to Milan, the beating heart of the Armani universe, offering a chance to admire these creations up close and appreciate their exquisite craftsmanship. The collection stems from a vision of modern creativity, expressed in refined lines, precious materials and techniques, and jewel-like embroidery created by skilled hands. With haute couture, Giorgio Armani allows himself to experiment and imagine freely, yet never loses touch with reality, offering a surprising perspective on his style. He embraces new adventures, drawing on faraway places and atmospheres, crafting a serene and seductive allure, in a tale told in the present. Because, when they are authentic, fashion creations are timeless.
A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema
Until September 08, 2025
Osservatorio Fondazione Prada – Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - 20123
“A Kind of Language: Storyboards and Other Renderings for Cinema” is the exhibition curated by Melissa Harris that sheds light on the complex creative process behind filmmaking by exploring storyboards and other materials intrinsic to this process, such as mood boards, drawings and sketches, scrapbooks and notebooks, annotated scripts, and photos. Set in the spaces of the Osservatorio, the project comprises more than eight hundred items created from the late 1920s to 2024 by over 50 authors, including film directors, cinematographers, visual artists, graphic designers, animators, choreographers, and other collaborators on film and video production.
Mario Giacomelli
Until September 09, 2025
Palazzo Reale – Piazza del Duomo 12 - 20122
In the first Centenary of Mario Giacomelli's birth, Palazzo Reale is hosting a major retrospective exhibition, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Katiuscia Biondi Giacomelli, featuring more than 300 original photographic works, including vintage and vintage prints, documents, and archival materials. In an evocative narrative itinerary, built on large chronological chapters, winding through the photographic series inspired by the readings of great poets, the exhibition celebrates the pivotal theme of photography as a narrative, structured with the language of the unconscious. The exhibition project is completed with an exhibition dedicated to the metamorphoses of matter and its performative conception of photography, which takes place at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. This unprecedented collaboration is intended to document and critically reread the entire human and artistic journey of one of the greatest photographers of our time.
Photo Cover: from the exhibition Paul Poiret, la mode est une fête
© Modem