State of Fashion 2024 | Ties that Bind
Curated by Rachel Dedman and Louise Bennetts, State of Fashion 2024 | Ties that Bind showcased together creative practices in fashion, textiles and contemporary art from across the Global South. This edition of the Biennale explored the complexities of tradition, the political power of clothing, and alternative approaches to exploitative fashion systems.
Ties that Bind had a decentralised structure. The Biennale unfolded across four places; the home site in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and three sister sites in Nairobi, Kenya, Bengaluru, India, and São Paulo, Brazil. In each sister site, an interlocutor-curator – Sunny Dolat, Kallol Datta and Hanayrá Negreiros – was invited to develop a project that responds to the Biennale’s themes from their perspective, embedded in their local context and community.
Ties that Bind celebrated fashion in an expanded field, through critical creative practices from all over the world. How are artists from the Global South addressing and contesting colonial legacies embedded in clothing and cloth? How are designers evolving inherited traditions, and engaging with the urgencies of our time? Rooted in the universal intimacy of fabric, Ties that Bind seeks to amplify the kinships and connectedness among global practices, and share the powerful human stories woven into what we wear.
The exhibition Ties that Bind was on view from 17 May to 30 June 2024 at our main location, the Rembrandt Theatre. In addition, parts of the programme were also hosted at Rozet, Museum Arnhem, and Plaatsmaken.
Photo: Maison ARTC, REBUILD, Commissioned by State of Fashion 2024
Would you like to read all about the Ties that Bind exhibition and the State of Fashion Biennale again? Discover it in our Visitor’s Guide.
Digital Recap
Read all about the Ties that Bind exhibition, discover the stories of the makers, delve into interviews with our interlocutors, and explore the outcomes of the residencies that took place.
In addition, discover all the other programme components, created in collaboration with partners such as ArtEZ, NewTexEco, Bureau Ruimtekoers, Crafts Council Nederland, FDFA, Museum Arnhem, Plaatsmaken, and many others. Dive into the full Whataboutery series and relive the aftermovie!
Sister Sites
State of Fashion 2024 unfolded in four locations: the homesite Arnhem and three international sister sites: Nairobi/Kenya, Bengaluru/India, and São Paulo/Brazil. In each sister site, a interlocutor – Sunny Dolat, Kallol Datta and Hanayrá Negreiros – had been invited to develop a State of Fashion project in their local context, responding to the themes of the Biennale as they relate to the urgencies and experiences of their cities and communities.
State of Fashion 2024 | … of involution, of languor…
The exhibition … of involution, of languor… took place against a landscape where the body, the cloth and the act of swaddling oneself are and always will be political. Artists Indu Antony, Rujuta Rao and Swati Kalsi bring care to the forefront of their artistic and research projects.
São Paulo: Através das águas costuramos outras histórias brasileiras
Between April 5 and 7 2024, Hanayrá Negreiros curated the exhibition Através das águas costuramos outras histórias brasileiras along with a series of talks at the Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP) in São Paulo, Brazil.
State of Fashion 2024 | Tradition(al)
From April 4 to 14, 2024, Sunny Dolat organised the exhibition Tradition(al), featuring 20 creators and a series of talks in collaboration with Lagos Fashion Week, at the Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya.
Homesite: Arnhem
In Arnhem, the home site in Rembrandt brought together the work of 26 artists and designers from over 20 countries, forging connections between practices from South America, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Balkans, South and East Asia.
The exhibition was formed around four themes alongside core elements from each sister site project, with two further artist installations presented at Museum Arnhem and Rozet. Rooted in the universal intimacy of fabric, Ties that Bind sought to amplify the kinships and connectedness among global practices, and shared the powerful human stories woven into what we wear.
Theme: Political Bodies
By virtue of being made by hand and worn on the body, textiles and dress are intimately connected to people, society and the political. For hundreds of years, the textile trade was entwined with colonial systems of exploitation, but clothing has always remained a mode of resistance, as well as an instrument of repression.
Theme: Designing Integrity
Today’s global fashion system is heavily exploitative of the world’s human and environmental resources, and it is predominantly the Global South that bears the burden of demand for fast, cheap clothing. From the practice of waste colonialism – where developed countries dump their textile and clothing waste in developing countries – to the inhuman treatment of garment workers, the dominant economic model is unethical and unsustainable.
Theme: Dismantling Tradition
Tradition is a deceptively complex term. Fashion and the making of clothing are practices defined by constant change and transformation. Although we associate tradition with the past, it is never at odds with the innovative. In Dismantling Tradition, fashion designers from across the Global South revel in the historical techniques they inherit,
Theme: The Fabric of Shelter
Cloth is a building block of humans’ social and material lives; from birth we are swaddled, in death we are shrouded. The very word fashion means to make, to form. The technology of textiles is fundamental and ancient, and clothes are the changeable, ephemeral homes through which we navigate the world.
Whataboutery series
During five (online) Whatabouteries, the themes of the exhibition Ties that Bind were explored in depth.
Below are the online registrations of Whataboutery 01: Political Bodies, Whataboutery 02: Dismantling Tradition and Whataboutery 05: Designing Integrity.
Public programme: Screen-printing activation by Farah Fayyad
For the activation of Farah Fayyad’s screen-printing carousel, we collaborated with Plaatsmaken.
During the State of Fashion Biennale 2024, visitors could have a bag, t-shirt or other garment printed with a unique State of Fashion 2024 design for free at Rozet and Plaatsmaken.
State of Fashion curated by FDFA
As part of the Ties that Bind Biennale, State of Fashion has invited Fashion + Design Festival Arnhem (FDFA) to organise an Open Call for Arnhem-based makers.
5 Arnhem-related makers
Hankyul Jeong together with HongKai Li and Jiwoo Lee, Collectief Raven, Batuhan Demir together with Ülkühan Akgül, Sophie Roumans and Bas Kosters will reflect on the theme of this biennale with new work. Especially for this part, an exhibition will be set up in Rozet Arnhem, which will be on view free of charge from May 17 to June 30, 2024.
Open Call
From October 2023, Arnhem-related makers could apply for the Open Call. They were asked for a plan in which makers described their idea for an installation/presentation/performance around the theme of the biennale. The selection committee, consisting of Mode Partners 025, ArtEZ, Rijn IJssel, Rozet, the curators and organisation of State of Fashion and FDFA, considered the 24 applications.
Hankyul Joeng, HongKai Li and Jiwoo Lee
Hankyul Jeong is known for her experiments with food combined with interactive, audience-engaging installations. She enlisted her ArtEZ colleagues HongKai Li and Jiwoo Lee for this project. The three artists are exploring the use of food in fashion: “Just like with food, you can express your personality through clothing. Both are culturally and individually determined. The diversity in food and fashion culture is central to our project.”
Collectief Raven
“In mythology, ravens are seen as messengers between different worlds. Our eponymous collective works at the intersection of art and the social domain. We aim to convey stories that are rarely heard or acknowledged. Stories from people who have been placed on the sidelines of society, either temporarily or for an extended period.
Batuhan Demir & Ülkühan Akgül
Ülkuhan Akgül and Batuhan Demir are a design duo, both from a Turkish immigrant family. They weave stories that transcend the ordinary. With a flair for drama and a dedication to pushing boundaries, they breathe life into stories of remarkable individuals through their bold visual expressions.
Sophie Roumans
“My installation illustrates the connection between our lives, the world, and its inhabitants. It emphasises how our choices have consequences for people worldwide. I want to show that behind our everyday actions, such as a trip to the supermarket, there are hidden impactful and political consequences.”
Bas Kosters
“In 2015, my father passed away after a brief illness. Right after that, I made a colourful tapestry from his clothing. I wanted to capture his life in textile. While working on it, I realised that an artwork about someone is about much more than just that one person. It taught me a lot, not only about my bond with him but also about what it means to be human and how one can develop as a person. The process of making the tapestry brought me closer to my father.”
Bureau Ruimtekoers
Bureau Ruimtekoers has developed three ateliers in which a local intercultural community in Arnhem, together with a maker, devises, produces and presents a work for the biennale. The three Ateliers stand as a space for meeting, exchange and connection.
Atelier Teddy
In five inspiring sessions with students of the Thomas a Kempis College in Arnhem, fashion designer Ruben Jurriën curated a mini-collection influenced by cuddly stuffed animals. With Ruben’s own stuffed rabbit Toetie as a sidekick, the students became acquainted with block print, embroidery and patchwork techniques, as well as each other.
Atelier Home
Fashion designer Zyanya Keizer and the participants of City at Home have created three objects made of reused materials, beads and paint. For six weeks over a period of three months, they worked on three extremely diverse items that vividly portray the various makers’ personalities. City at Home is a meeting place in the neighbourhood of Malburgen in Arnhem that serves as a home-away-from-home for women who feel isolated in Dutch society.
Atelier Batik
In Atelier Batik, Romée Mulder and Myrthe Groot from fashion label GUAVE collaborated with residents from Arnhem with Indo-European, Indonesian or Moluccan backgrounds to work with batik, a traditional Javanese craft that uses hot wax and dye to print fabrics with detailed patterns and motifs.
An Evening with Bobby Kolade
On 20 June 2024, State of Fashion and Nieuwe Instituut welcomed designer Bobby Kolade from the Ugandan brand BUZIGAHILL for a conversation about his design practice, his brand, and the local ecological and social impact of the fashion industry. In this edition of the series, ‘An evening with…’ which features both emerging and established international designers, Kolade delved into the supply chains of second-hand clothing and the notion of waste colonialism.
Many countries in Europe and North America export waste that, according to manufacturers, is too difficult—or too expensive—to process domestically to the ‘Global South,’ particularly to the African continent. A large portion of the discarded textiles that end up in countries like Uganda as second-hand clothing originates from fast fashion. Although he would also prefer to see the global production, trade, and consumption of clothing organised differently, Bobby Kolade has been compelled to creatively reinterpret the current possibilities. With his brand BUZIGAHILL, he operates under the principle of ‘return to sender’. The brand sorts, washes, and deconstructs garments from the Global North, transforming them into entirely new pieces of clothing that are then sold back in the countries from which the original clothing was sourced.
An evening with: Bobby Kolade was organised as part of the State of Fashion Biennale 2024. Kolade’s latest collection was featured in the main exhibition Ties that Bind, which was on display in Arnhem from 17 May to 30 June. Watch the recording of An evening with: Bobby Kolade below.
State of Fashion x VPRO Tegenlicht Meet-up: ‘Uit de Kleren’
VPRO Tegenlicht followed four pioneers on their mission to improve the unruly garment industry. They work on more sustainable textiles, transparent chains, more social policy at major brands and fairer advertising.
During the State of Fashion x VPRO Tegenlicht Meet-up: ‘Uit de Kleren’ on 17 May, we showed excerpts from the Tegenlicht broadcast and interacted with the co-curators, interlocutors of the State of Fashion Biennale 2024. In addition, Lara Wolters, part of the European Parliament also joined the conversation. Moderator of the conversation was Jean-Paul Paula, our State of Fashion 2024 ambassador.
Watch the Meet-up here.
