Manus x Machina

Manus x Machina is located in the Robert Lehman Wing, an octogonal space at the far western end of the Met. As described by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu during the press tour yesterday, walls throughout the exhibition are made from PVC scrim, a material often used in theater. Depending on the lighting, the material serves as a simple backdrop for the dresses, as a surface for projecting images, and as a means of revealing parts hidden things, such as the structure holding up the walls.

OMA's design necessitated inserting a new, temporary floor in the middle of the space, in order to create two levels for the exhibition of handmade and machine-made dresses. The eight-sided space in the center features a wedding dress designed by Karl Lagerfeld below a dome with kaleidoscopic images (above) of the dress's laser-cut train. Ambient music aids in making this and the other spaces feel like a "ghost cathedral," as Shigematsu called it. Somehow the combination of basic materials, traditional forms, ambient music, and haute couture dresses manages to make for a contemplative experience that is much greater than the sum of its parts.