Dívák & Icons - Large-scale international temporary exhibition opens next May in the House of Music

Rihanna, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Ingrid Bergman and many others will be featured in the House of Hungarian Music's temporary exhibition Divas & Icons, hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, starting in May 2024.

The exhibition closes in April 2024 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's largest museum of applied arts and design, and will first be displayed as a travelling exhibition at the House of Music in Budapest. After Budapest, he will travel to several important museums around the world, the organisers told MTI on Monday.
As they wrote, the exhibition gives an insight into the history of the great divas, from the greats of the opera world and silent movie stars to the celebrities of cinema screens to today's world stars.
“The exhibition gives a full picture of the diva phenomenon, so that every generation can find its appealing content, whether it be classic movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe, Cher, Tina Turner or later Madonna, or Rihanna or Billie Eilish. The exhibition will also mark the next year of the House of Music, deepening with various related programmes and pop-up exhibitions on the topics raised by the exhibition in 2024”, recalls András Batta, Managing Director of the House of Music.
The first part of the exhibition puts the creation of the diva in a historical context, reveals the stars of the stage and the screen, who have shaped today’s popular culture with their existence, while the second part celebrates the modern diva – it is highlighted in the document.
The exhibition at V&A presents hundreds of objects from the museum's own collection and borrowed pieces from around the world, encompassing design, costumes, fashion, photography, music and film.
Visitors can learn about the story of Ingrid Bergman through her dress in the film about Jeanne d’Arc, as well as the drama of the life of Sarah Bernhardt, Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich and many other iconic performers.
Several costumes are on display for the first time, such as Maria Callas's stage dress in the role of Norma from the 1952 Covent Garden production or Marilyn Monroe's fringed black dress from the film Van He Likes It Hot, but the show also features iconic sets designed by star fashion designer Bob Mackie, including dresses worn by Tina Turner, Pink and Cher, but Billie Eilish, Rihanna, Adele, Björk and Whitney Houston, among others, borrowed performance dresses for the exhibition.
The document also quotes Márton Horn, head of the institution of the House of Music, who said: “V&A’s curator, Kate Bailey, has built the concept of the exhibition with imagination and impactful dramaturgy, exploring, among many exciting themes, how women thrive in a male-dominated music and film world (…). Márton Horn added: The exhibition in Budapest will be complemented by chapters of historically significant Hungarian divas.
According to the information, in connection with next year's exhibition, temporary, pop-up installations will appear several times in the various spaces of the House of Music, the first being the installation entitled Díva-transit, which opens on 20 December and can be visited free of charge. András Batta's Subjective! series, which starts in January, evokes the divas of opera and pop music on three occasions.