Communion dresses, colourful hair accessories and glittery fairy wands... just some of the familiar archetypes that serve as visual markers of girlhood. The way we shape and, ultimately, recollect our adolescence is often inextricably linked to these seemingly innocuous material objects. Now, a new exhibition at MoMu in Antwerp, Girls. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between, brings together the interdisciplinary work of photographers, visual artists, fashion, costume designers and filmmakers, exploring the complexity of girlhood as “more than just a theme, but a way of seeing – of remembering and imagining”.
Featuring works by Sofia Coppola, Juergen Teller, Simone Rocha, and Louise Bourgeois, Girls explores the way in which girlhood is shaped, constructed, recalled and represented through a variety of different media. Throughout the exhibition, the motif of the bedroom as a site of spatial significance persists, starting with a reconstruction of the Lisbon sisters’ bedroom from Sofia Coppola’s 1999 film The Virgin Suicides.
The bedroom is positioned as a site of longing, where identities are trialled and discarded. This motif is explored by Chopova Lowena, whose reimagining of a bedroom displays full kitschy maximalism. Including frilled bedsheets and antique baby dolls, the Chopova bedroom recalls a space informed by, or perhaps given to, a girl by an elder; it is not yet completely her own, but has begun to bear the emerging stamps of individual identity through the roughly pasted posters on the wall.
As a statement from MoMu explains, the exhibition “serves as a reminder that through art, fashion and culture, representation and storytelling are essential in shaping visibility”. Girls showcases stories of girlhood that are multidimensional, complex and thought-provoking, challenging the misogynistic notion that art associated with female adolescence is somehow less intellectually valuable.
Micaiah Carter’s poignant image “Adeline in Barrettes” explores the notions of Black girlhood and self-expression. Elsewhere, a young Dakota Fanning is pictured for Marc Jacobs in 2007, oversized sunglasses and handbag in tow, prompting us to question why the acceptable mode of femininity is often intrinsic to the infantilisation of women. An exploration of girlhood’s impact on visual culture, Girls collates these stories in a tender, subversive and powerful manner. Visit the gallery above for a closer look at some of the artworks on display.
Girls. On Boredom, Rebellion, and Being In-Between is on display at MoMu in Antwerp until 1 February 2026.