Press release: the festival program!

More than 100 designers and artists from more than 20 countries will be given a stage during the 16th edition of the international and multimedia FASHIONCLASH Festival in Maastricht (The Netherlands) from 15 to 17 November 2024.

During this three-day festival, a new generation of designers and performing artists from all over the world are given the opportunity to show their work to a broad (inter)national audience. The program with exhibitions, performances, talks, workshops and fashion film screenings, showcases projects that explore, contextualize and celebrate contemporary fashion culture.

The program includes, amongst other things: The CLASH House with fashion performances, New Fashion Narratives exhibition at Bureau Europa, Fashion Film Program & Awards at Lumière Cinema, Fashion Makes Sense participation program at Centre Céramique, Pop-Up Sales event at SNS Expertisecentrum, and various other events throughout the city, such as Marres, Dans- en Partycentrum Bernaards, The Green Elephant (LBG Hotels) and Limestone Books.

FASHIONCLASH Festival is accessible to everyone through ticket sales and/or free.

The festival campaign

The campaign, consisting of a series of photos and a short fashion film, is developed in collaboration with Maastricht-based art director Ruben Hilkens, including local performers and students of Institute of Performative Arts, wearing designs by Dirk Vaessen, Peter Wertmann and Batuhan Demir, amongst others.
The multimedia campaign symbolizes CLASH, the multidisciplinary artistic method of FASHIONCLASH, which stands for the unexpected connections between people, fashion, different art forms and industries. By making surprising connections, FASHIONCLASH explores the role of fashion, the multimedia (fashion) language and new visions and practices. The platform aims to make critical reflection on social issues, visual arts and design visible in an increasingly innovative and practical (hands-on) way. In addition, for each festival edition the campaign project serves as a platform through which we invite designers and artists to express their perspective on FASHIONCLASH and/or fashion (world) in general.
— FASHIONCLASH

Opening Night, Sint-Annakerk

Friday 15 November

The festival opens on Friday evening with the performance program The CLASH House at a special location, namely the Sint-Annakerk in Maastricht. During the opening, performances developed from the Amarte x FASHIONCLASH project will also be shown.

The CLASH House, Saint-Anna church

Friday 15 November

The CLASH House is a showcase and development program for designers who focus on crossovers between fashion and other art disciplines – especially performing arts. These designers explore alternative ways to make and present fashion. Participants are Megan van Engelen, Julia Burak, SHIFT Studio, bzrkna and Paula Dischinger, receive a coaching program in which they are supported by theater maker Nadîja Roza Broekhart and dancer and choreographer Laisvie Andrea Ochoa. Theater director Giovanni Brand is the overall director of the evening.

New Fashion Narratives, Bureau Europa

15, 16, 17 November

For this year's exhibition program, five fashion practitioners were invited by FASHIONCLASH to form a curatorial team and collaborate on the concept for the New Fashion Narratives exhibition that will be presented at Bureau Europa during the festival. This year's curatorial team includes Chaewon Kong, Karime Salame, Katharina Spitz, Simon Marsiglia and Teresa Carvalheira – a group of fashion makers with diverse backgrounds and practices within and beyond the fashion landscape. They first met during a physical Residency Week (22-26 April 2024) in Maastricht, where they got to know each other and worked on developing the concept.
The exhibition is built around the idea of ​​the game Exquisite Corps that serves as a metaphor for the framework for presenting works that are the result of collaborative and/or transdisciplinary practices. A selection has been made of artists, researchers and designers from various disciplines.
Participants: 2mm, Agatha Prieto Jeanty, Rafael Kouto, Wataru Sato, Inès Torrens, Delia Rößer, Alyne Li, STUDIO ERASER YOU, Hongkai Li, Jiwoo Lee & Hankyul Jeong, Threads & Tits, Olivia Sahl Jensen, Sien Entius, Lee Kern, Studio Wievien, Romy Yedidia, DOMINIK, Knits and Notes, Zuzana Vrabelova, Chiel Lubbers, Dana Elmi Sarabi, Studio Frowijn, Souheila Chalabi, Jinwon Kim, Matti Paffen, Kushami 嚔(by Ayumi Kajiwara), Lara van der Poel, Wassim el Hodayebi.

Decolonial Fashion Residency installation, Bureau Europa

15, 16, 17 November

In the basement of Bureau Europa, you can experience the interactive installation that is the result of the Decolonial Fashion Residency that took place in June 2024. Ten fashion practitioners were invited to Maastricht for a week conversations and exchanges about the question 'What does decoloniality mean in fashion in the context of the Netherlands?'.

Participants: Tevin Blancheville, Angela Jansen, Catta Labeij Donkersloot, Lena Winterink, Gabrielle Swart, Kenza Vandeput, Agatha Prieto Jeanty, Robin Nimanong, Andrea Kristic, Kuiyu Kang'ari.

Fashion Film Program, Lumière Cinema

15, 16, 17 November

The film program at Lumière Cinema offers a platform to designers and filmmakers who experiment with the (short) fashion film genre. The program consists of a selection of 31 films from different countries in the world, thus showing a very diverse range of perspectives, disciplines, cultures and stories.  On Saturday evening 16 November, the five finalists will be presented and the FASHIONCLASH Festival Fashion Film Award 2024 and the KALTBLUT. Magazine Award will be presented by the jury consisting of Esther Muñoz Grootveld, Sam Bassett, Pedro Oberto, Donald Gjoka and Marcel Schlutt. 

On Saturday, there is a special screening dedicated to the film maker Hadi Moussaly and an artist talk moderated by Roberto Luis Martins.

During the festival, three fashion films will also premiere that were produced by FASHIONCLASH and resulted from the Fashion Film development process that was made possible by the Meester Koetsier Foundation.

The striking documentary Queendom will be shown on Thursday evening 14 November , with a Q&A with the director. The story of Gena, a 21-year-old Russian non-binary performance artist, is also the perfect introduction to the festival, which includes a queer activity program.

Participants: Anke De Veirman, Alijah Johnson, Esteban Avilaa, Ximan Tan & Haowei Li, Lisa Konno, Maya Marzuki Peters, Delia Simonetti, Sel Kofiga, Zoë Zita & Filip Kwakkel, Yisong Huang, Katharina Spitz, Nicholas John Murphy, Dean Alexander, Corentin Kopp & Aaron Arnoldt Alexander, Jhenyfy Muller, Luuk Sieben & Wertmann Peter, Hadi Moussaly, Ronita Awoonor-Gordon, Kutsal Taylanci, Asiah Essam Alsalem, Yu Chen, EV Zhang, Sophie Fabre & Roel Vissers, Nicola Martini, Dylan Eno, Desiree Brands & Joris Weerts, Thalia de Jong, Yangyang Wu, Michal-Zgierski.

Amarte x FASHIONCLASH
Marres, Mariastraat 13, De Meldkamer

15, 16, 17 November

Amarte and FASHIONCLASH are joining forces to offer artists from different disciplines the opportunity to experiment with fashion and to present new work during FASHIONCLASH Festival. Five artists have been selected from an open call with an intrinsic desire to collaborate with a fashion designer and to relate to the fashion context. They are then paired with a fashion designer and invited to experiment.

Participants: WEEF.collective X Roumans, Mira Verhoeve X Dirk Vaessen, ULKAAN (Kaan Hiçyilmaz & Ulkuhan Akgul), Manka Menga X Katharina Spitz, Naza Løtus x The Nightmare Disorder.

FASHIONCLASH, Marres

15, 16, 17 November

Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, is entirely dedicated to FASHIONCLASH during three days of various performances, installations and crossovers between fashion, visual arts and theater. You can enjoy exhibitions by recently graduated designers and artists from various Dutch art academies such as Arva Bustin, buccia, Iza van den Baar, UNCOMMON RAGE and Valentijn Schmitz. Work by Esra Westerburgen is on display and Boris Kollar shows an installation and performance Soirée of Seams. Thanks to the collaboration with Das Leben am Haverkamp from The Hague, there are beautiful creations by Jose Marie Sta. Iglesia to see. In a co-production with Via Zuid and collaboration with House of Rubber, theater maker laila claessen presents the performance SOMA & SKELETON. Marres also features installations and performances by WEEF.collective X Roumans, Manka Menga X Katharina Spitz and Naza Løtus x The Nightmare Disorder, as part of Amarte x FASHIONCLASH.

Pop-up Sales, SNS Expertisecentrum

15, 16, 17 November

The space of the SNS Expertisecentrum in the Sphinxkwartier will be transformed into a designer market where you can discover different designers and buy unique clothing, jewelry and accessories!

Participants: Aurélie Defez, C.Pouki, NNAEJ STUDIO, LINFIN, De Deugd, Julie Menuge, STUDIO ERASER YOU, POViS, Matti Paffen, LIQUID LEMN, SHIFT studio, FIASCO!, DOMINIK, Studio SUFI, ALIET MOES • SILVY TEN BROEKE • ZOË ZITA

Fashion Makes Sense, Centre Cèramique

15, 16, 17 November

Fashion Makes Sense is the ongoing participation program of FASHIONCLASH from which projects are developed focused on social design, inclusion, education and collaboration between professionals and semi-professionals/amateurs, especially involving teenagers and young adults. During the festival, the results of a number of projects will be presented such as FASHION x Crafts and TexTiles. In addition, there will be workshops, a presentation of the Kunstbende Fashion winner and the exhibition Handmade of Schone Kleren Campagne.

On Sunday afternoon, 17 November, the Fashion Makes Sense Talk moderated by Mara van Nes will take place with several designers and artists involved in the participation projects. Followed by a fashion show and performance by Dictator of Art (D.O.A).

Afterparty, Dans- & Partycentrum Bernaards

16 November

Come a little closer and see me for who I am. The FASHIONCLASH Festival Afterparty is not just a party, it is an interdisciplinary program and platform that is part of FASHIONCLASH's Queer Activity Program to give more visibility to the queer community in the region. Queer Activity Program consists of talks, workshops, a podcast series in collaboration with Limburg Museum and dance and fashion making workshops.  In collaboration with theater maker Samuel Valor Reyes, a program for the Afterparty has been put together with fashion shows of designers NNAEJ STUDIO, Tessa van den Eeden and Max Niereisel, performances and of course plenty of time to dance along the music by the fantastic DJ Frandy Perez from House of Vineyard.

The FASHIONCLASH Afterparty plays with the idea of letting the night bring us closer together, in a space that celebrates individual expression, by dancing in unity. The Afterparty seeks the limitlessness of your authentic being, as we move and transform together; a celebration of all! The night revolves around the idea of how we want to be chiseled as a statue and how we want to be remembered. Of course, this statue would be fashionable, opulent, and a limitless version of yourself!
— Samuel Valor Reyes

But there is much more!

15, 16, 17 November

There are (free) exhibitions and performances spread across various locations at Marres, Mariastraat 13 and De Meldkamer. At SNS Expertise Centrum, you can attend the Pop-Up Sales, a showcase where you can discover and buy work by emerging designers and brands.

At Mariastraat 13, in the heart of Maastricht, you can see and discover projects by Sofie Kramer in collaboration with designer Batuhan Demir, Orlando: The New Chapter, a project in collaboration with Toneelacademie Maastricht, an installation and performances of ULKAAN by Kaan Hiçyilmaz & Ulkuhan Akgul, and you can get to know the recently founded The Body Collective. Furthermore, there are exhibitions, talks, shops and performances spread across various locations at ATTIC*, a curated thrift store, The Green Elephant, Townhouse Hotel and Limestone Books.

About FASHIONCLASH Festival

FASHIONCLASH Festival is all about discovering and supporting talent, encouraging and helping to shape current developments in the fashion (world), making these developments accessible to a wide audience and initiating active public participation. Participants of the festival belong to a generation of designers and artists who explore and question the boundaries of their discipline. With their works, they move between the transdisciplinary domains of fashion, social design, performing arts and visual arts. The multi-voiced and multimedia program is a composite selection from various open calls and from projects initiated by FASHIONCLASH itself and developed in co-production with various organizations and makers. For FASHIONCLASH, the annual festival is a vehicle for disclosing the results of all projects and talent development trajectories that happen throughout the year as part of their ongoing annual program. For an impression of the festival take a look at the 2023 Aftermovie.