In the run-up to its next biennial in 2022, State of Fashion is reflecting on its core messages and its position by observing, questioning, looking and listening. In 2020, the platform started the intermediate program ‘This is an Intervention’ for which it invites thinkers and makers from different all over the world to take over its program. With provocative readings, online conversations, interactive workshops, and inspiring visuals, they reflect on the dominant fashion system, its flaws and its future, from a variety of angles. In April 2021, at the end of ‘This is an Intervention’, the voices involved will pass on the torch to the new curatorial team for the 2022 biennial. With this Open Call for Curators, State of Fashion sets out to find fresh thinkers with groundbreaking and novel ideas, that are eager to use the cultural and safe space of the biennial to actively challenge and change fashion.
State of Fashion considers fashion as a driver of positive change and aspires to be a catalyst for cultural transformation.
For its next biennial, the platform is posing three main questions:
Humanity
Fashion has been dehumanized by commercialization and industrialization. However, fashion comprises more than merely the system of producing objects for individuals with the means to spend. It is a medium for conversation about who we are as humans, how we relate to one another and to other species, and how we belong to nature. For our next biennial, we ask the curatorial team:
If compassion, sympathy and a generous disposition define humanity, how can fashion contribute to a world that is more humane for all?
Equity
Real change in fashion requires more than changes in the way we produce and consume garments, or the way we reward labor. It also requires a radical shift in power, one that dissolves the idea of the oppressor and the oppressed. While the term decolonization is slowly being coined by the industry as a marketing term, we challenge the curatorial team to think beyond hypes and critically explore the existing power structures in fashion. For our next biennial, we ask the curatorial team:
What are groundbreaking ways to create true, just and sustainable equity? Who has access and agency in this matter? How do we remain critical of our own endeavors?
Community
The current understanding of fashion is centered around and elevates designers and brands. In reality, fashion should be an activity that weaves together a community of equals in different parts of the world and of practices, skills and materials associated with dressing the body. Important success factors for healthy communities are relationships, openness, self-reflection, empathy and a willingness to change. For our next biennial, we ask the curatorial team:
How can fashion inspire deeper relational connections between people, and between people and their environment? How can the knowledge that is exchanged within communities be made accessible and sustainable?
PROFILE
The above questions are an open invitation for a conversation. With the Open Call, State of Fashion is looking for curatorial proposals that respond to one or more of these questions, and for curators that:
– Have a critical and outspoken view on the urgencies of our time, the necessity for fundamental change, and the role that fashion can play in this transition.
– Are able to look at fashion through a decolonial lens.
– Have a proven collaborative spirit and working method.
– Are eager to reimagine the form and/or behavior of a biennial.
– Bring in a stimulating network of collaborators from inside and outside of fashion practice.
State of Fashion is open to curators from different backgrounds and practices, such as design, research, education, crafts, production and media. Individuals and groups of any age, gender, nationality and country of residence are invited to send their proposal.
State of Fashion is explicitly not looking for a singular perspective. Following the example of its sister-event sonsbeek20-24.org, State of Fashion encourages applications that work from a curatorial team, a collective view or a conversational approach.
TASK DESCRIPTION
The curatorial team will be involved on a project basis from April 2021 and until the end of the biennial in June/July 2022. The main tasks of the curatorial team will be:
– Developing the theme / curatorial direction for the biennial in 2022, and writing an inspiring curatorial statement.
– Translating the curatorial vision into an engaging and successful public event in close collaboration with the (management) team of State of Fashion.
– Connecting his/her/their network to generate meaningful partnerships, research projects and other initiatives for the biennial.
– Acting as the spokesperson for the biennial 2022 to press and media.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Interested candidates are asked to send their applications by completing and sending the online application form before 1 February 2021, 23:59 CET.
Questions concerning the application process may be sent to opencall@stateoffashion.org.
