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ECHO. Wrapped in Memory

ECHO reflects on the intimate connection between clothing and memory through the lens of Louise Bourgeois, Simone Rocha and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

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Description of the exhibition

ECHO reflects on the intimate connection between clothing and memory through the lens of three artists whose work shares a tactile and emotional intensity: artist Louise Bourgeois, designer Simone Rocha and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

This exhibition is about the memories of infancy, childhood and motherhood, ageing and nostalgia, handmaking and repair, and both the physical and emotional memories of clothing.

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ECHO. Wrapped in Memory

ECHO. Wrapped in Memory
Graphic design: Paul Boudens | Video: Jeroen Lommelen | Music: Collection Louise Bourgeois Archive, The Easton Foundation, New York

ECHO is a conversation between artists of different generations and perspectives, and it is Louise Bourgeois, Simone Rocha and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker who guide this story. Three artists, all working in different disciplines, each evoking echoes of the past in their work. In their own unique ways, they each weave memories of clothing and textiles into their artistic language. What they create comes from a personal place, but the effects reach beyond the personal and touch many facets of the human experience.

It gives me great pleasure to hold on to my clothes, my dresses, my stockings, I have never thrown away a pair of shoes of mine in 20 years […] The pretext is that they are still good – it’s my past and as rotten as it was, I would like to take it and hold it tight in my arms.

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)
Louise Bourgeois - Dawn (detail), 2006
Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation/SABAM Belgium 2023

Louise Bourgeois famously described how she had her ‘blue days and pink days’. On her pink days she felt an intense surge of creativity, optimism, and affirmation, while blue days were days of melancholy, contemplation and withdrawal. ECHO welcomes these opposing yet interconnected forces that shape our everyday experiences and memories, moving along from one mental state to another, from conscious to unconscious, from pink to blue.

Featuring work by Louise Bourgeois, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Marianne Berenhaut, Billie Zangewa, Cassi Namoda, Cathy Wilkes, Harley Weir, Maya Barrera, Martin Margiela, Liz Magor and Laila Gohar.

Exhibition under the lead of
Curator: Elisa De Wyngaert
Exhibition design: Janina Pedan
Graphic design: Paul Boudens

Campaign imagery:
Louise Bourgeois in her home on 20th Street, New York, wearing her Helmut Lang coat, 2009. © Alex Van Gelder, from the series Mumbling Beauty, Louise Bourgeois, 2008-2010;
Simone Rocha, Autumn-Winter 2019-20 © Photo: Harley Weir;
Dries Van Noten, Autumn-Winter 2021-22, Collection film choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker © Photo: Casper Sejersen/Artistry Global.

© Quote: Louise Bourgeois, loose sheet of writing, c.1963; LB-0202 (Louise Bourgeois Archive/The Easton Foundation, New York).