FASHIONCLASH Festival 2024 – I See You Seeing Me

As we delve into our beloved FASHIONCLASH Festival 2024, we celebrate the remarkable intersection of art and fashion that unfolded in the vibrant city of Maastricht. This year’s edition highlighted bold experimentation and collaboration, reaffirming our passion for the innovative spirit that FASHIONCLASH inspires. Our second feature highlights the cooperation between Amarte and FASHIONCLASH, a partnership that created a unique platform for artists to explore the boundaries of fashion and creativity.

At the enchanting Marres, Mariastraat 13, Amarte and FASHIONCLASH joined forces, offering artists from diverse disciplines a call to showcase their creative interpretations within the fashion context. Five exceptional artists were handpicked from this open call, each possessing a burning desire to collaborate with fashion designers, leading to an invigorating exchange of ideas and aesthetics.

Opening night set the stage for a captivating display with Manka Menga X Katharina Spitz and Naza Løtus x The Nightmare Disorder showcasing their installation/performance at Marres. Among the highlights was the enchanting ‘Atelier of Transcience’ by WEEF.collective X Roumans, who deftly explored themes of transience and decay. Their significant vision magnified the delicate interplay of time, questioning the lifecycle of textiles while delving deep into the essence of sustainability.

In a thought-provoking contribution, Mira Verhoeve x Dirk Vaessen transformed De Meldkamer with their immersive work, ‘Building a House or Digging a Hole.’ This interdisciplinary creation blended design and performance, drawing inspiration from mazes and the fragile strength of paper. Their exploration sparked essential questions about identity and the feasibility of utopia.

The collaboration ULKAAN, featuring Kaan Hiçyilmaz and Ulkuhan Akgul, presented their installation ‘cid’ at Mariastraat 13 over the three-day festival. With the activation of the installation by performers Famil Zaman and Aidan Bay, this groundbreaking work disrupted conventional identity classifications through the fusion of fashion and digital technology. Their approach portrayed fashion as a powerful plea for self-expression, freeing individuals from rigid identity constructs.

“By creating sculptural garments with fluid physicalities, we bring forward unconventional bodily data as opposed to rigid identity assignments,” they articulated. The multimedia environment transformed these garments into vessels of ambiguous and unpredictable information, challenging systemic issues surrounding gender and sexual identities while encouraging a necessary discourse on their complexities.

The dedication of Marres, the House for Contemporary Culture, to FASHIONCLASH, created a three-day immersive experience filled with performances, installations, and cross-disciplinary artistic encounters. Audiences revelled in exhibitions by newly graduated talents from various Dutch art academies, including work from Arva Bustin, buccia, Iza van den Baar, UNCOMMON RAGE, and Valentijn Schmitz. Noteworthy performances, such as ‘Soirée of Seams’ by Boris Kollar and stunning creations by Jose Marie Sta. Iglesia, displayed through a collaboration with Das Leben am Haverkamp, enriched the festival’s narrative.

In a beautiful co-production with Via Zuid and House of Rubber, theatre maker Laila Claessen embarked on a journey through the human body in her multidisciplinary performance, SOMA & SKELETON. Rooted in age-old Ayurvedic wisdom, this exploration provided a contemporary lens to contemplate the intricate bond between body and soul. Claessen’s artistic investigation, reflective of her healing journey, raises a pivotal question: will she say yes to embracing her radical self-love?

At FASHIONCLASH, the celebration of creativity thrives, inviting all to engage with fashion as a transformative language that articulates identity, sustainability, and self-expression. We cherish this festival’s unique ability to provoke dialogue and inspire future generations of artists and designers alike.

All photos by Laura Knipsael @lauraknipsael
And Mitch van Schijndel @m_vanschijndel
visit www.fashionclash.nl. or follow via www.instagram.com/fashionclash_festival

Feat. 

Arva Bustin @arva_bustin
buccia
Esra Westerburgen @esrawesterburgen
Iza van den Baar @izavandenbaar
Jose Marie Sta. Iglesia @tatsoy_josemarie
Manka Menga X Katharina Spitz @kathakathak @mankamenga
Marres @marres_maastricht
WEEF.collective X Roumans @weef.collective
@roumans.studio
Boris Kollar @boris_kollar
Valentijn Schmitz @valentijns_studio
UNCOMMON RAGE @uncommonrage
Orlando – Toneelacademie Maastricht @toneelacademie
Sofie Kramer
ULKAAN @ulkuhan