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"   Rodarte on display in Arnhem.   ARNHEM, THE NETHERLANDS\u2014Arnhem, the city of Viktor &amp;amp;amp; Rolf, is a fashion microcosm tucked away in the province of Amsterdam: after Antwerp and Berlin, this town is rapidly becoming one of Europe&amp;#039;s most enthusiastic fashion hotspots. It&amp;#039;s currently hosting the Arnhem Mode Biennale, an event that&amp;#039;s sprawled across the entire city and includes a fashion exhibition the size of an art fair that boasts a diverse cast of participants ranging from graduate students to Prada, Raf Simmons and Thom Browne. So we met up with Joff, the Dutch-born, New-York based curator who pulled it all together to discuss the (sometimes very complicated) relationship between fashion and contemporary art. ELLE: Why introduce an art format to a fashion event, rather than a fashion week?Joff: Arnhem Fashion Biennale is here to emphasize fashion as a visual language of the arts. There are enough fashion weeks for the commerce of fashion. Arnhem Mode Biennale is a place where fashion designers can move freely without the constraints of the system. ELLE:  What is the relationship between art and fashion, generally and today?Joff: I think art is a very broad definition\u2014with a multitude of visual languages. Fashion&amp;#039;s one of them, which stands in its own right. I don&amp;#039;t think we really have to speak of a relation between them, or validate fashion by combination of architecture or `art&amp;#039;. These days, the disciplines within art aren&amp;#039;t as singular as we think. Photography isn&amp;#039;t just a medium, but a certain way of visualizing something, which often includes performance or installation art for example. The medium in itself is a way to externalize a thought or emotion to the public. Fashion in that sense is also a certain way of thinking and can be visualized by many means. Fashion-design being the ultimate way to communicate an ideology. ELLE: Can fashion be considered an art form?Joff: I think the discussion whether fashion can be considered art or not is often a problem as it is the art that&amp;#039;s closest to the body. We all like to discuss art; comment on it, praise it, philosophize about it; to take this approach to fashion design would mean having to be critical upon ourselves. Since `vanity&amp;#039; still seems to be a `sin&amp;#039;, we have a hard time considering fashion as an art form.   Damir Doma on display in Arnhem.  ELLE: You&amp;#039;ve worked with many international designers. Any anecdotes?Joff: When I invited Ann Sofie Back to take part in the 4th edition and asked her to create a total vision she got back to me wanting to create a `fucking-machine&amp;#039;. She sent me a link with some quite graphic material. Fashion to Ann Sofie Back is porn. I told her I thought it was a fantastic idea, but wondered how this machine would translate into her vision. A few weeks later she sent a sketch of a 2 meter high glass dildo, with a dress floating inside like a sea flower animated by air tubes and pink liquid. My production team researched the possibilities, but soon found out that the only way to produce a 2 meter high glass dildo would be in Africa, which would give us a serious shipping problem. So we were persistent and eventually it was produced in Sweden by an expert\u2014out of plexi-glass. ELLE: Why is Arnhem a place of creativity, does it have to do with the Dutch culture?Joff: I always like to believe that because The Netherlands is literally such a flat country we have the opportunity to look very far into the horizon which leaves a lot of space for experimental thoughts and innovation. Often I think the Dutch suffer a kind of twisted idea on reality in regards to size\u2014like a Chihuahua thinking it&amp;#039;s a Danish dog. Because of that we&amp;#039;ve established ourselves as an important player in international culture. The Netherlands has a very rich cultural landscape. Arnhem in that sense has a very rich fashion landscape. Many important designers have studied at the academy of arts in Arnhem, ArtEZ. Viktor &amp;amp;amp; Rolf, Alexander Van Slobbe, Lukas Ossendrijver, Wilbert Das, Lidewij Edelkoort and newcomers like Iris Van Herpen, Sander Lak, Spijkers &amp;amp;amp; Spijkers, Maarten Van Der Horst prove that Arnhem&amp;#039;s a breeding ground for innovative fashion design. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/art-design/news/a6697/arnhems-biennial-celebrates-fashion-23625/?src=global_footer>