State of Fashion is launching an Open Call for Curators for its 2026 Biennale, taking place in Arnhem, The Netherlands. We’re looking for visionary thinkers and makers with an outspoken view on the challenges the world faces at the moment, the necessity for fundamental change, and the role that fashion has in the ability to transform and reframe social and cultural contexts. Our leading question is: how can fashion & textile contribute to a better world?
THE OPEN CALL
For our fourth edition, State of Fashion asks prospective curators to build upon the main outcomes from our previous editions. Our goal is to focus on collaborative and collective action, where the global is connected to the local. We urge the curators to respond to the themes from an intersectional approach.
We invite the new curators to ….
→ unpack the politics of dress
→ forge community
→ honour unseen labour(s)
→ move beyond the binary
→ amplify voices from the global majority
The above mentioned thematic Calls to Action serve as food for thought, not as a fixed framework.
As a platform we continuously research the format of the Biennale and therefore entrust the new curators to challenge and reinterpret ways of presenting and programming their proposal, beyond the format of the exhibition. Examples could be a commission based approach where makers get the chance to create new work. Furthermore, the emphasis is often on the end result, we actively want to make space for the work in process.