State of Fashion continues to break through traditional fashion systems and is looking for curators

Open Call for Curators

Until Sunday 5 March, curators are able to apply for the Open Call for Curators for State of Fashion 2024, the fashion biennale in Arnhem. For the Open Call, we are currently looking for visionary thinkers and makers with an outspoken view on the challenges the world faces at the moment, the necessity for fundamental change, and the role that fashion plays in this transition. For its Biennale State of Fashion is calling out to individuals as well as groups, teams and collectives, with groundbreaking and contemporary ideas on how to use the cultural and courageous space of the Biennale to actively challenge and change the existing fashion system.

The Open Call

The main outcomes and findings of Ways of Caring serve as inspiration and starting point for the 2024 Biennale. Actively challenging prevailing perspectives and making room for untold stories and experiences remains an important goal. Can we define the unequal power relations between the dominant global north and the global south and how can we share and disseminate non-western knowledge? Could the concept of the 'exhibition' be challenged and enriched so that it invites and inspires the visitor?

We call upon the new curator (-team) to provide direction and shape a vision for new forms of presentation. The ambition is to make the theme attractive to both professionals and the general public, with education as a focal point. Ultimately, we hope to encourage behavioural changes, new practices as well as creating awareness.

About State of Fashion

State of Fashion is recognized as a pioneering platform that explores urgently needed radical change in fashion. Since its conception, State of Fashion has robustly addressed the environmental as well as the social footprint of the fashion industry, while uncovering new materials and production techniques. This framework was also the primary focus of its successful 2018 Biennale ‘Searching for the New Luxury’, curated by José Teunissen.

In 2020-2021, State of Fashion reflected with This is an Intervention on the current state of fashion, as well as redefining its own position as a platform. A diverse group of thinkers and makers from all over the world claimed the platform for eight months and unraveled the problems in the industrial fashion system, our role and the devastating effects on the earth and its inhabitants. It also became clear that - to ensure true diversity, equity and inclusiveness - a critical look and rigorous change is needed in the way the fashion system as a whole is organized. A radical approach is needed that tackles the problem at its roots. But where to start?

With This is an Intervention, State of Fashion set the course for the second edition of the Biennale Ways of Caring in 2022.

Sign Up

More information about the Open Call for Curators can be founded on stateoffashion.org. The deadline for the Open Call for Curators is Sunday 5 March 2023.

State of Fashion will be working in the assessment of all entries with an International Creative Advisory Council, consisting of Omoyemi Akerele, Tamsin Blanchard, Otto von Busch, Orsola de Castro, Carla Fernández, Aditi Mayer and NOT____ENOUGH Collective.

The new curator (or curatorial team) will be announced in the second half of April 2023. The State of Fashion Biennale will take place in May and June of 2024.

For more information, please visit: stateoffashion.org