Polimoda Rendez-Vous

On Wednesday December 12th, the Polimoda Rendez-Vous series hosted a guest lecture by my on behalf of FASHIONCLASH.
Within the artistic context FASHION MAKES SENSE. My Rendez-Vous talk digged into how FASHIONCLASH stimulates fashion audiences to consider the state of the industry: “What is the importance and role of fashion in our society, and how can fashion contribute to our well-being and a better world?”
"Are you willing to make some kind of a difference? This isn't just a political idea, you can make a difference by creating something so beautiful that you allow people to detach from reality. And even if it's just one person you touch, then it's worth making" — Branko Popovic

More information: https://www.polimoda.com/rendez-vous-branko-popovic
Photography: Polimoda

Viktor and Rolf - Fashion Statements

Viktor and Rolf - Spring 2019 Couture

Viktor and Rolf turned memes into haute couture dresses during Paris Fashion Week.

Iris van Herpen - Shift Souls

Iris van Herpen presented her spring 2019 couture collection at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
"Shift Souls" is inspired by DNA engineering and early astronomy, Harmonia Macrocosmica (a 17th-century star atlas.
Made in collaboration with New York-based artist Kim Keever, the ensembles contained layers of translucent organza prints on them with kinetic patterns and scientific, artistic and futuristic references.

"I looked at the evolution of the human shape, its idealization through time and the hybridization of the female forms within mythology. The way imagination and the fluidity within identity change in Japanese mythology gave me the inspiration to explore the deeper meaning of identity and how immaterial and mutalble it can become within the current coalescence of our digital bodies” 

James Blake - Assume Form

James Blake has released another stunning studio album, Assume Form.
As previously reported, the new record features a slew of guests: André 3000, Travis Scott, Metro Boomin, Moses Sumney, and Rosalía. Listen to it in full below. Assume Form is Blake’s fourth studio album. His last full-length, The Colour in Anything, was released in 2016.

Schepers Bosman AW 2019

Schepers Bosman presented their autumn/winter 2019-20 menswear collectioninspired by the wotk of the Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers

Schepers Bosman took the work of Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers (1827-1921) as the starting point for AW19. Besides the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Central Station, his work also includes numerous churches. He made architecture, more than that he designed buildings. Emphasizing or concealing building elements by the use of colour, material and template prints, was translated by Schepers Bosman into a collection.
Seams and finishings have been made visible and treated as decoration. Pattern parts are emphasized by placing different materials and colours next to each other. After research at the Cuypershuis, the decoration templates archive was used as a source for handmade patchworks and vinyl prints. Minimal construction versus decoration. The collection consists of voluminous overcoats, silk finished trousers, oversized shirts, detailed sweaters, overalls and handstitched scarves. These items are made of silk, crepe wool, mohair, Japanese nylon, corduroy and heavy tricots.

The Royal Waiting Room The AW19 images are shot in the Royal Waiting Room at the Central Station of Amsterdam. The space designed by Cuypers was specially opened for this occasion, so that the collection is immediately placed in the image of the inspiration.

https://www.schepersbosman.com

Palomo Spain - Wunderkammer

Palomo Spain campaign for the Spring/Summer 2019 “Wunderkammer” collection, photographed by Kito Muñoz.
More info: www.palomospain.com

Currents #6 - Good Intentions

Alexey Shlyk

Currents #6: Good Intentions presents the work of 17 emerging artists who recently graduated from Belgian, Dutch and German academies.
This year’s theme Good Intentions, brings together personal stories and political statements dealing with identity, youth and cultural traditions. From twerking to vlogging children, from the French Revolution to drone warfare and from pickling chestnuts to selling your soul for ice cream.

Many of the selected artists moved to the Euregion from different parts of the world. Through their work they reflect on society and contemplate belonging in today’s established socio-political order. The artists treat subjects ranging from happiness to alienation; from controversial histories to the perversity of the internet. Their works question morality and focus on the tension that occurs between cultural appropriation, conformism and individualism.

Good Intentions combines photography, video, installation, performance, print and sculpture. Centering on the artists’ personal perspectives and experiences, the exhibition illustrates the complexity of self-definition in today’s world. The exhibition is curated by Marian Cousijn, Anne Ruygt and Bertan Selim.

Liesel Burisch

Participating artists: Elena Aya Bundurakis (KASK Antwerp), Pavel Balta (PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt), Jonas Brinker (Staedelschule Frankfurt), Liesel Burisch (Staedelschule Frankfurt), Sjoerd Houben (KASK Ghent), Nimrod Karmi (Staedelschule Frankfurt), Susanne Khalil Yusef (AKV|St. Joost Den Bosch), Yorgos Maraziotis (KASK Antwerp), Kim Nuijen (AKV|St. Joost MA Fotografie Den Bosch), Eric Patel (AKV|St. Joost MA Fotografie Den Bosch), Pati Petrykowska (LUCA School of Arts Brussels), Constance Proux (KASK Ghent), Anna Rubbens (LUCA School of Arts Ghent), Alexey Shlyk (KASK Antwerp), Bert Snaterse (MAFAD Maastricht), Nasrin Tork (KASK Ghent) and Joris Verleg (AKV|St. Joost Breda).

More info: https://www.marres.org

Kim Nuijen

Joost/Elvis

“We can’t build our dreams on suspicious minds” 
2018 is leaving us for 2019.

Celebrate the coming of the new year in an intimate hour of music, meet and greet and drinks with the king of the 20th century: Elvis Presley.

Let Joost Howard’s Elvis lead you through the ups and (a lot of!) downs from the passing year, while soothing your existential Christmas melancholia with a drink and the distant arousing commercial sounds of Magisch Maastricht.
Exactly 50 years after his famous television come back special, Elvis strikes… again. Will the icon of the 20th century still sound meaningfull in 21th century? Can he reclaim his crown?
Elvis ’s final concert will be performed partly unplugged and partly high-end karaoke. A sort of Christmas feeling included.

Joost / Elvis is produced for and by Theatre on the Vrijthof in coöperation with Karmijnrood Podiumkunst

Language: understandable English
Drinks: drinks can be bought on stage before the show and can be consumed during and afterwards.

TICKETS & INFO: http://www.theateraanhetvrijthof.nl/voorstellingen/2018/12/joost-horward-joostelvis-oudejaarsshow4/

FASHIONCLASH - Christmas Designer Market

S T U D I O H E E Y BY H.Klein
photo Studio Say Cheese

On Saturday the 15th of December, FASHIONCLASH will host a Christmas Designer Market where you can buy clothing, jewelry and accessories from (local) designers at one of Maastricht’s newest hotspots, The Student Hotel!
Christmas Designer Market is organized in the context of the Forza Fashion House project.

Designers:
ebby port
Henkjenz
Jackalo Danielle Vroemen - Jewellery Design
S T U D I O H E E Y BY H.Klein
Olivia Bertus - Handmade Originals
Paragon by Mirte van Wijngaarden
Maryvonne Wellen Jewellery
SOOLZTER
Little Trophy
Hiske Hottinga
Jivika Biervliet
Duo Wonder by Sofie Hermans textile & surface design & Souvenirs at Katja Noelmans Marlou Verheijden
STRIKKS
Chakula Uponya

More information:
www.forzafashionhouse.nl
www.fashionclash.nl

 

Unrobe - Heroes of Waste

Sustainable clothing brand brings ode to Amsterdam garbage collector with a 'Zero waste' collection. The 'Heroes of Waste' capsule collection is only available via pre-order to prevent overproduction and draw attention to the growing waste mountain in the fashion industry.
Recently Unrobe won the Vedis Innovative New Retail Award 2018.

Mass production in the fashion industry is a major problem for Daan Ubachs and Koen Warmerdam, the founders of the Unrobe.
"With this collection we want to draw attention to this global problem", says Daan Ubachs, That is why Unrobe introduces the capsule collection 'Heroes of Waste', inspired by the Amsterdam garbage collectors and exclusively available as a pre-order for 30 days. For example, the brand produces exactly what has been sold, no waste and they pay attention to the problem.

The capsule collection can now be ordered online at unrobe.com and the pre-sale closes on 30 December. Production will be delivered at home in early February 2019.

It is a hot topic in the fashion industry - pollution, exploitation and growing waste mountain. Unrobe's mission is to undress the fashion industry from its bad habits. One of those bad habits is overproduction that results in a growing waste mountain. There is only mass production and there is a disposable society. That is why Daan Ubachs and Koen Warmerdam go for a completely innovative model: selling collections on a pre-order basis. "By making made-to-order, we actually do something about the waste problem", says Koen Warmerdam.

https://www.unrobe.com

Fashion For Good - Museum for sustainable fashion

In October, the world’s first interactive museum for sustainable fashion innovation opened in Amsterdam. The Experience is an interactive museum outfitted with the latest technology. If you’re interested in fashion, innovation and sustainability this is a fun, immersive must-visit venue in Amsterdam. The museum aims to change the hearts and minds of the visitors by telling stories behind the clothes you wear, shows you how to take action and have a positive impact on the fashion industry. Through a personalised digital journey with an RFID-bracelet you can learn about the history of good fashion, discover sustainable products and explore fashion innovations of the future. Throughout the building, you can find concrete ways to have a positive impact, commit to taking action and shop sustainable products.

In its Good Shop, the Fashion for Good Experience also showcases current concepts that show good fashion is already available today. The store features curated product collections that are built around inspiring themes and swapped out every three months.
The first theme is “Splash: Rethinking the Role of Water in Fashion” and features products from adidas x Parley, Kings of Indigo, ECOALF, Insane in the Rain, Karün and Ms. Bay.

The Fashion for Good Experience, at Rokin 102 in Amsterdam, will open on the 5th of October. The Experience will be open seven days a week and is free of entry.

More information about current programme and Fashion for good: https://fashionforgood.com

David Lynch: Someone is in my House - Bonnefantenmuseum

David Lynch: Someone is in my House
30.11.2018 - 28.04.2019
Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht

On 30 November, the Bonnefantenmuseum is hosting the long-awaited extensive retrospective Someone is in my House, by the American artist David Lynch.
Although David Lynch is undoubtedly a pivotal figure in the international film and TV world, his work as a visual artist is not nearly as well-known. This is strange, to say the least, as Lynch has always stressed that he sees himself primarily as a visual artist; a visual artist who came into contact with the medium of film during his studies at the art academy by chance. This encounter formed the basis for his career as film director. Alongside his work as a director, Lynch has always remained active as a visual artist and in recent decades has created a vast oeuvre of paintings, drawings, lithos, photos, lamp sculptures, music and installations. Up to now, this oeuvre has seldom been exhibited in museums. The Bonnefantenmuseum is not only presenting the first museum exhibition of Lynch's visual art in the Netherlands, but also the largest retrospective ever, comprising over 500 works by the artist.

About David Lynch, visual artist
Although the work of Lynch (1946, Missoula, Montana, US) might suggest otherwise, filled as it is with dark violence and sexuality, the artist and filmmaker's childhood was a happy and loving one. Lynch's parents loved to travel, so he led a nomadic life from an early age, which for him was an idyllic and safe environment. Encouraged from an early age to be creative – colouring books were forbidden in favour of using his own imagination – he ended up studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia. There, Lynch developed his artistic vocabulary and themes that would recur throughout his future work. It also paved the way to his first mixed media installation with stop-motion film, Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) (1967), which formed the prelude to his first feature film Eraserhead (1977). The rest is (film) history, and nowadays Lynch's films are modern classics.
Lynch's artistry runs like a thread through his life and his films. Throughout his fifty-year career, he has continued to draw and paint, even when his work as a film director meant there was little time to spend in his studio.
"I miss painting when I'm not painting", says Lynch himself in the recent autobiography Room to Dream."

In collaboration with David Lynch, the Bonnefantenmuseum is presenting an impressive retrospective of Lynch's multifaceted artistry. The exhibition includes paintings, photos, drawings, lithos and watercolours spanning the sixties to the present, unique drawings on matchbooks from the seventies, sketchbooks from the sixties, seventies and eighties, black and white photos from various periods, including the famous Snow Men photo series (1993), cartoons from the series The Angriest Dog in the World (1982-1993), audio works and some short films from 1968-2015. And for the first time since its creation in 1967, the all-decisive academy work Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times) will be shown in a museum exhibition.

More information: www.bonnefanten.nl

Hermione Flynn: A 3D Performance Artist

A new era has begun at the Berlin fashion-house, Hermione Flynn. As a trained performance artist, Flynn has always pioneered clothing design centered around artistic concept, social commentary and mixed media presentations. As one not to shy away from innovation, Flynn is now embracing and pioneering 3D as her chosen medium of artistic communication.

This shift in Flynn's process has resulted in the creation of a highly accurate and realistic 3D replica of the designer's own physical form. This digital-double will function as Flynn's own 3D performance-art avatar.

"A challenge I have always faced in the art-direction of performance is the unavoidable reality that I cannot "see" myself. It was this restriction that refrained me from ever performing in my own works, and forced me to always collaborate with models, actors or dancers to realize the performances. Now that I have the avatar (I call her "Em"), I have the capacity to direct my own exact form, and analyse and critique my own performance. The other fascinating realization is also that Em obviously does not have a soul (yet!), meaning that I can subject her to scenarios I would never normally put myself (or any person) through. This has opened up a whole new realm to my approach to the art-work as a concept.
In addition to this, the 3D medium also has it's own other-worldly qualities which defy real-life. Em can pass through walls, change her form, colour or appearance in an unlimited number of ways. Em can take on the movement of a ballerina, a soldier or a sex worker (through the use of motion capture technology). This freedom has opened the doors to a reality which is unlike any we can fathom, and as an artistic medium, 3D is truly like no other." - Hermione Flynn

As a first look at the avatar, Flynn has created a 3D campaign "Watermark" which explores concepts of "digital make-up" as well as exposes the texture-mapping of 3D objects.

Hermione Flynn intends to produce limited edition concept-collections, which are a simple by-product of the 3D art and performances created. The introduction of 3D will also drastically inform the creative process - from cloth simulations to 3D printing, the products produced at Hermione Flynn will certainly reflect this new era.

The movement towards 3D-created content is unavoidable. It is sweeping through the entertainment, social media, advertising, VR and AI industries (to name a few), so the influence on fashion and art is now utterly inevitable. Flynn has been able to take advantage of such a movement, through the exclusive partnership with Berlin-based 3D content-creators Synthetic.Studio and sister company Mimic Productions.

"We are thrilled about this new endeavor, and look forward to sharing and creating new content in the field of performance, art and fashion. Whether it's virtual reality, animated videos or 3D stills, we will be embracing the authentic potential and unlimited possibilities of this exciting new medium." - Hermione Flynn

www.hermioneflynn.com

Immaterial - Ultramaterial

Max Stalter

Immaterial - Ultramaterial is an exhibition of hosted by Burg Giebichenstein University Halle at Veem building during Dutch Design Week.

The exhibition is all about demonstrating the diversity and bandwidth of our university.
Young graduates and students have been dedicating their time to rethinking manufacturing processes such as extruding, knitting and 3D printing, resulting in highly tangible (ultramaterial) products. Meanwhile, immaterial ideas and beliefs have been translated into thought-provoking installations to reflect and discuss societal issues.
By bringing together the upper and lower extremities of materiality, they capture the creative spectrum of what is happening in the hands and minds of our dedicated students.
The products and projects on display have been developed within the departments of Industrial Design, Conceptual Fashion Design, Textile Design and Interior Architecture, and including skilled artworks from the Ceramics and Jewellery classes. Every year, the Burg Roadshow curates and presents selected art and design works by our graduates and students at our favourite design weeks in Europe.
http://burg-halle.de/roadshow/2018/dutch-design-week/

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation 2018

Boris Maas - The Urge to Sit Dry'

The Graduation Show 2018 was the first edition in almost two decades to take place outside the walls of Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE). This move to a venue on the site of the historic Campina Milk Factory reflects a major shift in the public’s perception of design and the role of DAE.  
‘The relevance of design today’ says creative director Joseph Grima, ‘has vested us with a position in which we, as a profession, have unparalleled influence over our collective future. Now it is down to us, as an institution, to extend the horizon of design education in response, questioning and revisiting how we present our work and generate discourse and debate.’
G18 showcase featured 208 projects by 185 graduates, who shared their visions to the wide audience.

www.designacademy.nl

Take a look at my picture report that show most of the highlights.