Exhibition concept: Maja Alilović
Exhibition design: Bilić_Müller Design Studio
Poster design: Bilić_Müller Design Studio
The long-term study project Zagreb Trades, the realisation of which started on the eve of the centenary of the Zagreb City Museum, will explore, evaluate and present the development of crafts and trades in Zagreb.The first in the sequence is the exhibition The Grand Prix in Hair: The Art of Hairstyling in the Kincl Hairdressing Salon.
The initiative for the exhibition The Grand Prix in Hair came from a distinguished Zagreb tradeswoman Mrs Vesna Kincl-Murtić, whose desire it was to preserve the memory of the family hairdressing salon and the work that was crowned with a number of world awards. The exhibition will endeavour to preserve memories of associates and co-workers and express gratitude for their support and collaboration. It is also a contribution to the memory of the work of the trades associations in which the members of the Kincl family were always highly ranked, some of them indeed being the founders.
The history of the Kincl family, and the history of the hairdressing salon that has been at work for more than seventy years, is an inseparable part of the history of the hairdressing trade in Zagreb. In this manner the exhibition is in part a review of the history of the Association of Hairdressers of Croatia, founded in 1904 under the name of the Association of the Barbers and Wigmakers Trades. At the end, the overview of the history of the Kincl Salon in the context of that time and space identifies it as a part of the chronicles of the society, fashion and trades of a particular urban setting.
The investigation of the topic, which only at first glance seems to be undemanding, covered the study of an extensive private collection of photographs and press-clippings of the Kincl family, of the available archive materials, the trade journals and the trade and technical literature published to date.
An important signpost in the reconstruction of the history of the Zagreb tradesman's family of the Kincls and its location on the trades map of Zagreb was a monograph by historian Marija Šercer, MSc, The History of the Association of Hairdressers of Croatia 1904 – 1994, published to mark the 90th anniversary of the hairdressing society. The book abounds in invaluable facts and figures deriving from research into the archives of the Association of Hairdressers of Croatia. This review puts the association firmly in the history of the Zagreb trades, sums up its legacy, reconstructs its development and evaluates its ample activities.
All fashion, including those in hair cutting and hair styling, is the product of the time, of social, political and economic changes.The fashion of hair styling is dependent on, and sometimes subordinate to, current changes in the fashion in clothing. It is inevitable that the whims of fashion and the dictates of cutting and styling must be obeyed, but what distinguishes a good hairdresser from a good artisan is actually the skill in creation.
The exhibition The Grand Prix in Hair deals with a segment of the fashion history of the city and is conceived as a contribution to the study of and fitting together of a fashion mosaic of Zagreb in the twentieth century. Photographs from the private archives of the Kincl family provide a history of sophisticated and elegant Zagreb and illustrate the skill of the work through the diversity and quality of hairstyles, the inventiveness of the forms and colours and compositions. Not only do the photographs remain the only trace of the skill of the hairdresser, the only way in which a style can be preserved, they also record the moment where the dictates of current fashion end and the personal creation of the master hairdresser begins.
The Grand Prix in Hair is a logical continuation of previous campaigns in the assembly of material that keeps alive the memory of the Zagreb tradespeople, including that of the hairdressers. Since 1998 the Zagreb City Museum in its permanent display, dedicated to everyday life in the period between the two wars, has presented the interiors of two salons. The whole equipment of the barber's shop of Većeslav Librić (once at Radićeva 20) became a part of the museum's holdings 25 years ago. Thanks to the efforts of Vesna Kincl-Murtić and Ana Markovinović, a place in our permanent display has also been taken by items from the hairdressing salon Ema, at Ilica 17, which conjured up for the visitor the setting of a hairdressing salon for ladies of the 1930s.
The exhibition also included a show of historical evening and diurnal, traditional and contemporary hairstyles. Each model, along with the hairstyle, wore an appropriate dress from the time to which the hairstyle alludes. All the dresses were produced in well-known Zagreb dressmakers and boutiques. Some of the dresses are owned by Mrs Vesna Kincl-Murtić and, on the close of the exhibition, as donation to the Museum, became part of the holdings of Zagreb City Museum.
The Grand Prix in Hair is an introduction to a systematic investigation of the trades of Zagreb, and it also represents a wish to keep alive the memory of people who were part of the trades and cultural history of Zagreb. This exhibition, and the future exhibitions from the cycle Zagreb Trades, will facilitate and accelerate the process of gathering museum material, the aim being to preserve the tradition and the promotion of Zagreb small businesses as a product of the culture.
Maja Alilović
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Miljenko Gregl, ZCM
Exhibition catalogue
Alilović, Maja. The Grand Prix in Hair : The Art of Hairstyling in the Kincl Hairdressing Salon.
Zagreb : Zagreb City Museum, 2007
