Time Mimicry – Salvador Dalí’s Fashion Visions and the Contemporary Hungarian Fashion Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts
2026. Feb. 22. - 2026. May. 24.
Fifty-five years have passed since Salvador Dalí captured his ideas about the fashion of the future in twelve drawings. Works created on commission for Scabal, the internationally renowned Belgian-founded textile brand, will be on view at MODEM Debrecen from 21 February 2026, presented in dialogue with contemporary Hungarian fashion designs from the 2000s, selected from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts.
The exhibition at MODEM presents six original works by Salvador Dalí. These are accompanied by a selection of contemporary Hungarian fashion designs from the 2000s, chosen from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts. The exhibiting artists—Tamás Király, Valéria Fazekas, Anikó Németh (Manier), Krisztina Remete, Dóra Zsigmond, Lilla Pápai, the Perceptuel Thinkers collective, Use Unused, Artista Studio and Zita Attalai—reflect on the social, cultural, and aesthetic issues of their own time and relate to Dalí’s drawings as equal, autonomous expressions.
The exhibition’s central concept is time mimicry, which refers to fashion’s adaptability and its capacity for constant renewal — a defining force within our culture. A piece of clothing thus carries not only the time of its design, but also the present of its wear and the promise of an imagined future. In this approach, time is not a linear process for fashion, but a field of repetitions, references, and reinterpretations.
The title of the exhibition was inspired by Salvador Dalí’s 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory. The exhibition at MODEM examines fashion as a time-sensitive cultural practice that reveals the layers and connections between different styles and eras.
Curator: Dr. Judit Horváth PhD, Head of the Contemporary Design Department at the Museum of Applied Arts
Visual designer: Kriszta Remete DLA
©Scabal, ©Salvador Dali, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Hungary 2026