Kensington Palace is being transformed. As the walls of the palace are being shaken by a £12 million renovation project, the rubble and the dust are unleashing powerful and secret stories about the lives of Kensington’s princesses.
At the heart of a new interactive exhibition, Enchanted Palace, at Kensington Palace lies a quest for the seven princesses who once lived there: Queen Mary II, Queen Anne, Queen Caroline, Princess Charlotte, Queen Victoria, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales.
In the exhibition their lives have been re-imagined as art installations offering a fascinating interpretation of the palace’s hidden stories. Six London-based leading designers – including Vivienne Westwood, Stephen Jones and William Tempest – have been challenged to use the incredible and dramatic stories of the people who lived in the palace as the springboard for stunning installations that mix fashion, music and performance.
As visitors explore room by room they will encounter the rebellious princess who ran from an arranged marriage into the arms of love, sad queens who bore the pain and sadness of lost babies, the young heir to the throne who escaped the controlling grasp of her overprotective mother.
Visitors must use their eyes and ears to find clues that reveal the identity of each elusive royal residents. Guided by an enchanted map, the advice of obliging palace guardians and a few helping hands, their search will take them to all the hidden corners of the State Apartments and lead them to a glittering finale where they will at last meet the princesses face to face.
Opens 26 March 2010
image: http://stylebubble.typepad.com
