Childhood Storage

The film 'Childhood Storage' was commissioned by Han Nefkens for the ‘The Art of Fashion’ exhibition at the Museum Boijams Van Beuningen. The work describes the new hybrid area emerging between Fashion and Performance.

To this date, the film has been extensively shown worldwide and significantly expanded in its form, now comprising the Childhood Storage film, Childhood Bedroom Maquette, a series of 72 photographs and Childhood Bedroom Replica 1:1. Other commissioned and featured artists for the exhibition included Hussein Chalayan, Viktor & Rolf, Jana Sterback and Walter Van Beirendonck.

Childhood Storage is shot entirely within a detailed replica of the researcher’s first childhood bedroom. The compelling concept of the film stemmed from the notion that mothers often preserve their child’s bedroom from the moment the child leaves home, creating a kind of physical and emotional storage for childhood. It presents ideas of how we are physically and psychologically shaped by our childhood.

The making of the film required a very specific motion control camera system that enables precise control, allowing repetition of complex camera movements and facilitating special effects in postproduction.

The uniqueness of Childhood Storage also lies in the original processes the researcher conducts herself as writer, designer, performer, director, producer and editor. Every body gesture, camera movement, film frame and crucially editing is resolved in her studio prior to shooting the final film, ensuring and refining dynamic filmmaking. The film’s distinctive aesthetic is enhanced through the one-piece jumpsuits and the prosthetic foot gloves that help define the performance.

Childhood Storage constitutes artistically and cinematographically arresting filmmaking and makes an important contribution to the field of Fashion film. It describes new, contemporary Fashion practice and theory, redefining the body’s relationship to its environment and Performance.