‘Rage, poetry, hope’: The State of Fashion Biennale 2024 addresses a need to change the system

An alternative fashion system is currently nestled amongst the folded seats of a disused cinema in Arnhem. There, some 100 or so works of art, sculpture and fashion make up this year’s edition of the State of Fashion Biennale, ‘Ties that Bind’.

The exhibition focuses on how artists from the global south are addressing and contesting the colonial legacies embedded in clothing and cloth. Its ideas are rooted in the intimacy of fabric, the universal familiarity of clothing and the urgent need to change the fashion system.

Inside the 2024 State of Fashion Biennale, ‘Ties That Bind’

When the State of Fashion was established in 2017, the ambition was to make alternatives for the industry visible, but with hopefulness. Today its director Iris Ruisch is sanguine. ‘It is clear at this moment that the designers and researchers we are working with feel an intensity,’ she says. ‘We focus on the cultural side of the business, which has always been hard, but we have to invest in looking at how fashion can play a meaningful role, not just a mechanical one. That’s what drives us.’

Applicants to an open call for curators in February 2023 were asked to respond to the issues that arose from the previous edition. How could the biennale’s format illuminate untold stories and redefine the global power imbalance? In their proposal, the art historian Rachel Dedman and designer Louise Bennetts suggested redistributing the funding available beyond the context of the Netherlands.

As a result, three interlocular curators staged their own satellite shows. In Bengaluru, Kallol Dutta brought together three practitioners who focus on care and community. In São Paulo, Hanayrá Negreiros foregrounded the work of eight indigenous Black Brazilian women. In Nairobi, Sunny Dolat staged an exhibition featuring 19 designers from across the African continent. ‘It is not often that people get to see and appreciate the works of other creators and makers on their home ground,’ he said. Whilst working on the show, Dolat was motivated by the role of fashion designers as preservers of knowledge. ‘This felt like a really important moment to bring the work home.’

The State of Fashion Biennale is an amplification of kinship; the meeting of practices and artists from across the world. ‘We’re encouraging people to think about clothing more meaningfully. Part of the issue is just how disposable it has become,’ Bennets says. ‘In some ways the word “fashion” can be a bit of a turn-off. As soon as you say it, people’s minds go towards something glitzy and hollow, not things that are intimate, or meaningful or nuanced, which are the things that fashion absolutely can be,’ she says. Fashion touches all people and ‘Ties that Bind’ reveals a whole range of associations between what we wear and how we treat one another. It is full of rage, poetry and hope.

The State of Fashion Biennale 2024: Ties that Bind is open until 30 June 2024.

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