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Item: Vliegeniersuniform [Spacesuit]

Panamarenko

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Materials:

Collection: Workstation Biekorfstraat - Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. PAN-1103).

This aviator’s suit dates from the mid-1950s and is of American manufacture. The idea was to inflate the suit, to counteract the effect of low air pressure at high altitude. Panamarenko probably bought it at an American army surplus
store, and appeared with it for the first time at the “KYRPWWAWAX” happening in Ostend on 6 August 1965. Already presenting himself at this point as a ‘multimillionaire’, he then lent the suit to Hugo Heyrman for later happenings, as it fitted better with Heyrman’s utopian ‘happy space maker’ image. This is why the aviator’s suit became inextricably linked in the happening context with space flight, and would go down in history as the ‘spacesuit’.

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The M HKA is a museum for contemporary art, film and visual culture in its widest sense. It is an open place of encounter for art, artists and the public. The M HKA aspires to play a leading role in Flanders and to extend its international profile by building upon Antwerp's avant-garde tradition. The M HKA bridges the relationship between artistic questions and wider societal issues, between the international and the regional, artists and public, tradition and innovation, reflection and presentation. Central here is the museum's collection with its ongoing acquisitions, as well as related areas of management and research.

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