M°BA 13

Thousands of visitors have enjoyed experiencing all 8 of M°BA 13's exhibitions, its festivals, films, seminars, city programme and pop-up stores. Delve into some local visitors' comments here, while the biennale continues until Sunday, July 21.

For those of you who would like you to visit FASCINATION at the Zypendaal Castle, it runs until August 31.

www.fetishisminfashion.com

This is Betony Vernon and Lidewij Edelkoort signing the 'Boudoir Bible' and 'Fetishism in Fashion' books at the Atheneum pop-up store at M°BA CENTRAAL.

Lidewij will be doing another book signing there this coming Saturday, July 13 @ 16:30.  You can also order the book here

Fetishism in Fashion recently welcomed renowned specialists from around the world to discuss and share their view on fetishism, each of them adding more layers of understanding to the subject.

Over two days this June 25th and 26th, the seminar's message became emphatically felt by all: through exploring fetishism and fashion, our culture is headed towards a moment where our sexuality will merge with the spirit, unveiling a new instinctive era to come.

We asked some of the speakers to share their personal experiences of the seminar and M°BA 13 in the Fetish Files

We had the oppoortunity to interview each of them to get their thoughts on the Biennale.

Let's start with Betony Vernon's thoughts, ENJOY!

video by Charlotte Björklund

moba.nu

betonyvernon.com

A trip into the changes to come. Lidewij Edelkoort is pleased to welcome you in Arnhem for an inspiring international seminar on Tuesday June 25 and Wednesday June 26, to meet with creative thinkers and designers from around the world and discuss fashion, design, branding and culture. Being commissioned to curate the fifth edition of M°BA (Mode Biennale Arnhem), following the newest undercurrents in society and style, Edelkoort decided to analyze and to decrypt our collective obsession with fashion through the idea of fetishism. To share the fascinating research, to deepen its comprehension and how it can relate to our professions.

In the seminar, Lidewij Edelkoort will headline a selection of acclaimed speakers including fashion historian Dominique Fallecker, psychologists Dr. Iki Freud and Dr. Dawid Wiener, photographer Ruud van der Peijl, milliner Little Shilpa, designer Faye Toogood, curators Angelos Tsourapas and Vassilis Zidianakis, fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura and sexual anthropologist Betony Vernon, concluding with a special ceremonial session by shaman Daan van Kampenhout.

A trip that will fuel creativity in our minds and to discover amazing talents.

www.moba.nu

Nudism.This long-lasting trend that uses the colours of our own skin to imply that we go through life stark naked, is finally coming of age. Since its emergence towards the end of last century, the nude movement hasn't gotten a wrinkle. Fashions and accessories even expose our framework and bone structure, exploring clothing designed from skin and skeletal material, recently inspiring garments that will support, portray and modify nakedness by using prostheses and body adjustments.

From the influence of the artist Orlan to the Donut Heads in contemporary Japan, the idea of transforming the face and the body has become a major obsession, with implants and the removal of flesh and bone.

Our natural state of being colours textiles bare and gives a raw and undressed dimension to any garment; naturalism in styling is therefore a fetishistic principle, able to transform the way we dress. Materials are epidermic and erotic, exciting the senses with rubberised coatings, organdie veils, whispering satins and fragrant leathers. These materials are configured in corsets, lingerie and bodices that reveal the anatomy of the body and its inner workings.

The silhouette has a clinical, dissected style that is deconstructing things even further, penetrating the organs in forever wilder and weirder fashions.

Lidewij Edelkoort

moba.nu

We are one week of the grand opening of M°BA 13, the world’s only fashion biennale in the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.  One hour from Amsterdam, one hour from Dusseldorf, four hours from Paris or London. One year ago I was asked by the board to be the main curator of this Biennale and I have accepted!  The tension is building and the stress has taken temporary residence in our bodies. To see not only one mega exhibit but also nine other super shows come to life is an exhilarating experience.  The theme of the whole six weeks is Fetichism in Fashion and this direction has given us an important possibility to explore new ways of telling stories and new ways of curating young and experimental fashion work.

Picked up on the net and with often small pictures we have ammassed a magical collection of more than 150 clothes that are groundbreaking. When I saw the first room realised with a group of spiritual clothes I was awstruck and dumpfounded. Goosebumps would run all over my body (even my legs strangely enough) and tears came to my eyes. These clothes are all animistic creations, garments with a soul and a spirit that seem to dialogue with you. Covered with hoods, veils and tiara’s the circle of silent silhouettes was of an extreme power, akin to an Arte Povera installation. I will tell you more about the exhibitions every day.

On saturday,  I woke up in Berlin to visit a beautiful country mansion where the very succesful online store Zalando was hosting a beautiful group of seductive bloggers from all over Europe. Very beautiful environment, very beautiful people. I had the chance to interact with all these headstrung independant nomads on a very intimate morning where I lectured about how to detect trends, what are the trends of the future and of course about my current mantra Fetishism.

Since I wrote a book about the subject I have become somewhat of a specialist. And was happy to share my ideas of the fetishism in the future. We then speeded back to the airport to go to Holland as soon as, to work on texts and exhibitions and this blog.

In the plane I became VERY excited about the article Flatland in TIME magazine written by Lev Grosman. It argues that soon the major players on internet are going to radicaly change the icons we use which are all skeuomorphs = representations of an old function that doesn’t cover the new possibilities. The Apple graphic design will soon be in the hands of the former director of hardware design. He aims at radically changing the way we see tools in a more abstract and truly FLAT manner. No longer pretending to be 3-dimensional like the trashcan.

In my thesis for the book POP-UP GENERATION, about the fact that young designers live in a world between the two dimensions  my story ends with a prediction that by and large we might become flatter and flatter in our expressions. A nice conformation of the book that was published in december 2011. For more information about my books Fetishism in Fashion and The Pop-Up Generation please contact BIS publishers and FRAME publishers.

Lidewij Edelkoort

The People of the Labyrinths have taken religion as a focal point to investigate our near-spiritual relationship with clothing and brands. During M°BA 13, Arnhem’s Eusebius Catherdral will be animated by a multi-media installation, both celebrating and questioning the worshiping of fashion.

When taken out of their original and intended context, religious artefacts, symbols and imagery can be woven into the hybridized melting pot that is global fashion and urban culture today. It no longer seems enough to simply signal subtle hints about who and what you are. The need to create a new self-image and identity in a babelonic age – and to make the world around you believe in this externalised creation of yourself – is apparently and visibly a very urgent one. The ambivalent cultural implications of this ever more visible trend means that people feel comfortable referencing content and meaning from different cultures and religions; not just from Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, but also from Shinto, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism and more. Inspirations are incorporated into an added message for fashion, street-wear and subculture.

Information is available to everyone. The advantages of the interconnected global village are confronted by our unacknowledged being ending up lost in translation. In order to become a real personality in this world, a person who is wanted and needed, or in fact believed, is forced to build up their self-image and identity from scratch, gathered from the eclectic information we find in the Google-era, via social media and in subcultures; or as examples from celebrities or people we admire – for instance the impact of the crucifix used as a fetish artefact in Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ video cannot be underestimated.

Marie Jeanne de Rooij

moba.nu

The Royal Burgers' Zoo welcomes M°BA visitors to a special exhibition conceived by Lidewij Edelkoort in collaboration with Lustrousfur.

MANIMALS will introduce us to 25 little creatures made up of different furs that mimic the coats of many of the zoo's hairy residents. Designed to educate children as well as parents and fashionistas, MANIMALS illustrates the fetishistic ties that bind us to the animal kingdom, connecting fashion and nature in a more respectful way.

The exhibition is housed in the MIR, a site-specific pavilion by Alfons ter Avest. An inspiring installation takes shape in a fantasy habitat, built up from trees, plants and rocks, and populated by cuddly hybrids - complete with ears and tails - mixing pattern and texture in new fashion silhouettes.

Lustrousfur is a highly-realistic fur-like fabric made of a high quality material, Modacrylic Kanecaron® microfibre from Japan. The shedding problem which has been an issue with fur products has been dramatically reduced by Kanecaron's® technology and the textile is also flame retardant, making it a desirable material for fashion brands and product designers around the world.

M°BA Pass holders receive a 50% discount on all entrance tickets at the Royal Burgers' Zoo during the exhibition (June 9 - July 21, 2013)

www.kanecaron.com

www.burgerszoo.com

Founded in 2008 by the internationally acclaimed fashion critic and video journalist Diane Pernet, A Shaded View on Fashion Film (ASVOFF) is the world’s first annual festival dedicated to fashion films.

ASVOFF is not only a competition of short films about fashion, style and beauty but also a traveling international event showcasing feature films, documentaries, conferences, performances and installations.

ASVOFF ARNHEM will take place in M°BA CENTRAAL’s auditorium theatre on the weekend of July 6th & 7th. A special homage to the internationally-respected artist ORLAN will take place on July 6th, featuring a live interview between Diane Pernet and the artist.

ASVOFF is pleased to announce an open call for submissions for fashion films inspired by the keyword "FETISH". A jury headed by photographer Erwin Olaf will award one winner as the best film in a special evening session at M°BA CENTRAAL on Friday, July 5th.

Deadline for submissions: June 23, 2013 - Film Length: 30 seconds - 5 minutes maximum

Submit

Download the application form

www.asvoff.com

On June 25th and 26th, M°BA will host one of the biennale’s highlight events, an international seminar to delve deep into the fetishisms in fashion.

Creative thinkers and designers from around the world will discuss fashion, design, branding and culture, in an informative and inspiring 2-day symposium.

Lidewij Edelkoort will headline a selection of acclaimed speakers including:

fashion historian Dominique Fallecker (France), psychologists Dr Iki Freud (Netherlands) and Dr Dawid Wiener (Poland), photographer Ruud van der Peijl (Netherlands), milliner Little Shilpa (India), designer Faye Toogood (UK)

curators Angelos Tsourapas & Vassilis Zidianakis (Greece) fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura (Japan) and sexual anthropologist Betony Vernon (United States), concluding with a special ceremonial session by shaman Daan van Kampenhout (Netherlands).

Tickets: € 175 / € 300 for both days

Bookings

Lidewij Edelkoort delves into the world of contemporary fetishism to reveal a daring and instinctive future for style and culture. Fetishism in Fashion investigates topics including the evolution of taste from birth to adulthood, the elevation of shoes through ever-higher heels, the psychology of branding, the effects of infantilism, the power of black, the fetishizing of objects, and our interaction with skin and the body.

Essays and interviews include contributions by Andrea Branzi, Sylvia Chivaratanond, Malu Halasa, Susan Piët, Henk Schiffmacher, Valerie Steele, Faye Toogood and Betony Vernon.

More than fifty fetishes are illustrated by inspiring visuals from Leigh Bowery, Roland Fischer, Pieter Hugo, Erwin Olaf, Jenny Saville, Sølve Sundsbø, Marie Taillefer, Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek, Marcel van der Vlugt and Carsten Witte.

The boundaries of design are stretched in the work of Iris van Herpen, Bart Hess, Pepe Heykoop, Formafantasma and Alexander McQueen.

Bolder, crazier and more outlandish fashions are on the horizon, making this book a key reference in a new era of experimentation and intense creativity, unveiling the intimate ties that bind us.

Order a copy now  RRP €39 (plus €6 postage & handling) Published by Frame, Amsterdam.

Press Release

An amalgam of people on a trip to Africa 20 years ago decided to create a foundation and has since worked together for two decades to design, produce and sell azimuth collections from different backgrounds; Benin, India and Morocco are the eclectic countries chosen because of their cultural resources in terms of dyeing, weaving, braiding and recycling and moreover thanks to their grace, their optimism and their joy of living, painfully absent from our countries, remedy against the gloominess.

This year, Heartwear will present its anniversary collection during M°BA 13 at Judith ter Haar’s Arnhem famous boutique, Jones.The collection reflects the maturity of the Heartwear brand and its creators’ determination, a collection that quotes twenty years of designs and deep indigo textiles.

From minimal polka dots to extra-large banana leaves, from African sailors’ stripes to the batik flowers of the islands, form large tint areas to the black-spotted wax, all these patterns gather and mix together to become a living memory of savoir-faire. Like a cadavre exquis, you are invited to assemble, transform, and collect these proposals with excess.

To make you happy, make us happy and especially to help sustain another twenty years for Heartwear’s tribe of weavers, dyers, tailors, sewing shops, potters, woodsmiths and aluminium recyclers.

Long Live to handcraft!

Lidewij Edelkoort

Heartwear will be on sale at Jones in Arnhem from June 8 to July 21, 2013

A sale will also take place at Studio Edelkoort in Paris from June 1 to 9, 2013

Heartwear

www.jonesarnhem.com

Marie Taillefer 

From M°BA's Blog : The borders between creative disciplines are fading away. Designers are playing with our imagination and experimenting with different ways of constructing objects. Fashion creations are turning into art pieces (and art sometimes becomes fashion). There is always a new field to discover and combining this with existing expertise will bring us a new way of thinking and a new way of approaching global issues.

The World of WearableArt® is an annual design competition and show, held in Wellington, New Zealand and attracts more than 50,000 visitors across the two-week period.

During the event, more than 160 garments from all over the world are exhibited. WOW® is more than an art exhibition, more than a fashion show and more than a design award show.

WOW® is where art, fashion and theatre collide and the only boundaries are the limits of the human imagination.

Design entries open 1 December for the 2014 World of WearableArt® competition.

www.worldofwearableart.com

A magic potion invaded the FETISH issue of View On Colour, feeding on all the forms of fetishes and materials inhabited by the force of nature: shells, stones, wood, blood and earth -- exploring variations of gris-gris and amulets as contemporary accessories, establishing a profound link between the wearer and the forces they represent, with fur, skin, bone, minerals and metals.

Voodoo mobiles inspire new and archaic forms for vehicles while voodoo beauty rituals make use of heady concoctions of natural ingredients like mud, minerals, roots, nuts and fruits; eradicating flaws and bewitching age. Our hairdos are primitive and wild, almost animalistic, further exploring the sculpted quality of our hair, coupled with new and unusual extensions.

Mirror, mirror… on our furniture, is giving a unique perspective to inner space, while dramatic gothic tabletop is using mediaeval matters for pitchers and goblets. Clothes are exploring fetishism with inspirations derived from shamanism, alchemy, astrology and black (and white) magic.

We explore the ritual of the circus, inspiring a new generation of clownesque clothes and cosmetics. Some people are born magicians, jokers and jugglers, keeping their balls in the air and educating us with intriguing insight, as witnessed by all the elements of this visionary trend magazine. A hundred and forty pages of unbridled creative energies that are instinctive and therefore unable to be tamed…

Away from the mainstream, Abracadabra!

Lidewij Edelkoort

Buy a copy of View on Colour #25

To celebrate MoBA throughout 2013, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new blog fetishisminfashion.com

This blog will take a fetishistic look at the intimate links that may exist between a piece of clothing and ourselves, the passion that a pair of shoes can generate, the elating feeling the tactility of a textile can bring, our profound relationship with a brand or our loyal adoration of a designer.

Most importantly, we are on the hunt for fresh faces, outsider brands, young designers and fetishistic creativity from all around the world - this blog is your platform! Log on to tell us about your own fashion fetishes and to share with us new fashion talent. The sky is the limit so please engage with us and above all, enjoy!

Lidewij Edelkoort

www.fetishisminfashion.com

Every two years, MoBA (Mode Biënnale Arnhem) displays the current state of affairs in worldwide fashion and design. Now in its 5th edition, this biennial has the unique quality of being a cultural event which both the fashion industry and a broad public flock to. From June 8 to July 21, 2013, along with fellow curators, we will unveil a vision of unique fashion through exhibitions, seminars, workshops, pop-up stores and films.

As an avid lover of fashion and textiles, I have decided to analyse and to dissect our collective obsession with fashion through the idea of FETISHISM. The content will range from our fundamental need to cover ourselves to the eccentric extremes to which our desires can take us on the quest for beauty.

Lidewij Edelkoort

www.moba.nu