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![Yamuna Forzani x Filling Pieces]( "Yamuna Forzani x Filling Pieces")
infoJul 17, 2023 1,955 Hypes 2 Comments TEXT BY Dylan Kelly SHARE THIS ARTICLE Link Tweet Share Email More IN THIS ARTICLE Filling Pieces In line with European Pride celebrations, luxury streetwear imprint Filling Pieces is celebrating LGBTQ+ culture with a new collection comprising two mini capsules: one made in collaboration with Berlin’s DAGGER and another crafted with Amsterdam’s Yamuna Forzani. Under the “ENERGY IS EVERYTHING” banner, both queer-owned labels look to champion fashion’s fluidity with packs of expressive silhouettes that combine their own visions with Filling Pieces’ premium wares. ”It’s important to me, the team and the brand to be a reflection of how we would like to see society,” said Filling Pieces founder Guillaume Philibert. “Bridge the gap between different people, cultures and disciplines. A place where everyone is embraced for who they are and the freedom to be, regardless how they identify themselves. As a brand we are proud to be partnering up with initiatives and communities that proudly represent their beliefs within their art. The two collections gracefully and unapologetically breathe those same ethos.” DAGGER, established in 2020 by founder Luke Rainey, draws inspiration from skate culture. In Rainey’s words, the brand is a fusion of “queer-coded Tony Hawk Pro Skater characters,” a style trope that naturally blends with Filling Pieces’ key silhouettes across a range of leopard-printed shorts, cropped tank tops and signature blue loafers. Yamuna Forzani, meanwhile, celebrates ballroom culture through a multidisciplinary practice that bridges fashion, photography, dance, installation and social design. With Filling Pieces, the designer delivered a lineup of vivid feminine cuts, including a form-fitting, long-sleeve monogram top, a knitted polo shirt, a unisex sweater vest and an orgy patch loafer. Filling Pieces’ DAGGER collaboration will launch on July 20 at an independent party in Berlin Mitte. Yamuna’s capsule will arrive at the Filling Pieces Amsterdam flagship store on August 3. Take a look at the “ENERGY IS EVERYTHING” collection in the gallery above.
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![It Takes a Village]( "It Takes a Village")
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![Mars in Scorpio]( "Mars in Scorpio")
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![Blow Up Den Haag]( "Blow Up Den Haag")
infoYamuna Forzani – Een groot hart In deze gevel aan de Schouwburgstraat duwen twee oude gebouwtjes tegen de grijze nieuwbouw van de Koninklijke Schouwburg. Dit surrealistische grensgebied is ideaal voor Yamuna Forzani, een Italiaans- Engelse kunstenaar die tegenstellingen verbindt. De LGBTQIA + gemeenschap is het nieuwe utopia voor globetrotters. Omarmd door + en -> symbolen staat Forzani’s wereldbol voor gelijkheid en optimisme. Forzani studeerde Textiel en Mode aan de KABK en werkt vanuit Den Haag aan een succesvolle internationale carrière.
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![Come Alive exhibition]( "Come Alive exhibition")
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![Spiritual Urgency]( "Spiritual Urgency")
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![Bound]( "Bound")
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![Froggy Bum Milano]( "Froggy Bum Milano")
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![Angel Delight]( "Angel Delight")
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![Dazzle Trip Ferry]( "Dazzle Trip Ferry")
infopublic art work as part of the Amsterdam ferry festival
Queer communities have been laboratories for radical cultural innovation throughout history. This was never more apparent than in the twentieth century, when increasing urban populations, changing societal norms, and independent media channels fueled the growth of alternative spaces and networks of solidarity, celebration, and activism. While members of the queer community were often forgotten or denounced by mainstream society and deprived of financial and social resources, their creativity emerged in the less regimented spaces of nightclubs and art spaces. In particular, the ball culture of New York City in the 1980s provided the context not only for performance and costume design, but for cultural commentary, friendship, and AIDS awareness. It was a space to explore gender and sexuality with a community where such freedom would be fostered.
Yamuna Forzani, who graduated from the Textile & Fashion department at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, celebrates ball culture in a multidisciplinary practice that combines fashion, photography, dance, installation, and social design through inclusive public events. The ball becomes a shared platform uniting these creative methodologies, paying homage to the balls of the 1980s while also experimenting with new formats or themes. Her Utopia Ball Fashion Show honours the ball tradition of providing a competition structure based on multiple, complex categories of performance, from “Virgin Runway” to “Executive Realness”. This variety of categories acknowledges a history in which queer members of society have sought different modes of self-expression and self-protection, as well as a new set of contemporary aesthetics. Forzani’s collection of twenty-four multi-coloured knit outfits are also debuted in the ball, interweaving the design with the real-world context that inspired it. Her collection is designed not to exclude any individual but to be genderful, celebrating the multiplicity of roles and identities that we embody within social structures.
By hosting such events, Forzani enacts a design practice that celebrates her interests outside of the traditional design field; she leaves space to express her artistic and political activism, as a member of the Kiki House of Angels in the Netherlands and an international member of New York’s House of Comme Des Garçons. Rather than suppressing personal perspectives in accordance with an idea of “neutral professionalism”, designers today can contribute to the
Websites
Social media
Curriculum vitae
Education
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Self-taught
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2014 - 2015fashion Swedish School of Textiles diploma
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2012 - 2016textile and fashion Den Haag, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten diploma
exhibitions
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2023Dazzle Trip NDSM Amsterdam, Netherlands ‘Dazzle Trip’ is a series of new works shown in various art installations that celebrate gender diversity in the public space and provide a glimpse into the universe of artist, designer and queer activist Yamuna Forzani. From June 22 a video installation in a shipping container, three images on the NDSM Billboards, and the inflatable A Big Heart (in collaboration with Blow Up Den Haag) can be seen at the NDSM wharf. In addition, a Dazzle Ferry sails between the NDSM wharf and Amsterdam Central Station (in collaboration with Amsterdam Ferry Festival). With ‘Dazzle Trip’, Forzani aims to raise awareness and celebrate the multitude of roles and identities that everyone embodies within social structures. www.ndsm.nl/en/event/dazzle-trip-2023-yamuna-forzani/ Solo
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2023Blow Up Den Haag Public Art The Hague The Hague, Netherlands Yamuna Forzani – Een groot hart In deze gevel aan de Schouwburgstraat duwen twee oude gebouwtjes tegen de grijze nieuwbouw van de Koninklijke Schouwburg. Dit surrealistische grensgebied is ideaal voor Yamuna Forzani, een Italiaans- Engelse kunstenaar die tegenstellingen verbindt. De LGBTQIA + gemeenschap is het nieuwe utopia voor globetrotters. Omarmd door + en -> symbolen staat Forzani’s wereldbol voor gelijkheid en optimisme. Forzani studeerde Textiel en Mode aan de KABK en werkt vanuit Den Haag aan een succesvolle internationale carrière. denhaag.com/nl/blowupartdenhaag Group
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2022Angel Delight 2.0 WORM rotterdam, Netherlands Forzani Soundsystems presents – The Dream Concert Yamuna Forzani takes over WORM’s Tuesday Concert Night. On the 25th of October we don’t serve snacks we serve you LOOKS, hunney! Yamuna will showcase her latest collection in the form of an acoustic performance presentation, think NPR’s tiny desk concert on acid. There will be a line up of two live acts and a DJ set to round the evening off. LINEUP: ???? Wiam The Music Playing her first set as a DJ, Wiam The Music is bringing the feel good waacking vibe to our night, playing a mix of disco, funk & house, she will kick off and close our night to set the mood. ????Jowi and Zaïre are both multidisciplinary creatives based in Rotterdam- they will both share an original spoken word piece ????Sono Sono is an artist with Indigenous roots. Making music came natural to them and was the start of a beautiful healing process. Influenced by a mix of genres like, Indie, pop/rock and r&b, Sono sings about forbidden love, freeing your mind and heartbreak. Sono realised that music is therapy, poetry, love, friendship and life. With their music & lyrics, Sono is creating a voice for themself. They aim is to inspire other people to create a voice of their own as well. ????Sophia It’s okay to be vulnerable is the core message of Sophia’s recently released debut album Fragile. Dancing tight on the border between pop and R&B, the Rotterdam singer-songwriter himself sets a good example. For example, on ‘Questions’ she sings about her absent father and on ‘Ass Out = Trash Out’ she settles with her fraudulent ex-manager. Although Sophia releases her music independently, Fragile has already been picked up internationally. A walls-down, neo-soul effort effort that tackles everything from heartbreak to family abandonment. ????Zulu Green (she/he/they) Born and raised in Amsterdam, Zulu Green claims to be a Hip-Hop & Soul influenced musician who translates vibrations. Her music varies from trap to sultry 90’s tinged R&B, which, like Green, cannot be pigeonholed. Thier music is Unapologetically BLACK, QUEER & VIBEY! ABOUT Angel Delight 2.0 The Angel Delight 2.0 Residency surrounds the concepts and ideologies of Yamuna Forzani’s artistic practice as well as her ideologies and involvement in the Dutch Ballroom scene. During 22nd, 23rd and 25th October there will be two evenings of workshops that give a deeper understanding and context of the ideologies and concepts of Forzanis work. The climax of this residency will be Yamuna Forazni’s fashion worm.org/production/angel-delight-2-0-x-snackbar/ Solo
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2022It's Our F**king Backyard Stedelijk Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands The Stedelijk spotlights the greatest challenge of our time: the climate crisis. The exhibition It’s Our F***ing Backyard shows that designers can make a compelling difference: through innovative experiments or by drawing on ‘forgotten’ knowledge, they invite us to look at materials in a radically new way and offer us design that is both responsible and aesthetic, comfortable and accessible. Eighty selected projects by designers and companies from all over the world shed light on an array of strategies that explore innovative uses of materials. The exhibition also looks at how soil depletion relates to practices of colonialism, which are still continued by some multinationals. www.stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/its-our-fing-backyard-2 Group
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2022Spiritual Urgency Stedelijk Schiedam Schiedam, Netherlands Young pioneers of the creative world are increasingly embracing the concept of spirituality. These young artists, who refuse to be pigeonholed, celebrate and share the value of spirituality in their own, unique way. The Spiritual Urgency exhibition shines a spotlight on spirituality – what is it exactly, and what does it mean? – and invites you to take the leap and join the artists on an all-consuming journey through the museum. The exhibition opens at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam on 26 November and will run until 10 April 2023. Artists and creators as spiritual guides Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is giving a platform to today’s most cutting edge, cross-disciplinary creators, from Nick Verstand, Jennifer Tee, and Memo Akten to Marlou Fernanda, Tim Wes, Shertise Solano, and Asma Elbadawi. The selection also features artistic productions of labels such as Daily Paper, in collaboration with the artist Alexandre Nitzsche. These pioneering works are presented alongside the works of kindred spirits from art history, such as herman de vries, Wassily Kandinsky, Jacoba van Heemskerck, and Charley Toorop. Visitors will be left in no doubt that, throughout the ages, artists have always played the role of spiritual guide. Although each artist draws on different personal, cultural, or religious influences, the exhibition is not about these differences – it is about that which unites them: the urgency of spirituality. www.stedelijkmuseumschiedam.nl/tentoonstelling/spirtual-urgency/ Group
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2022Secrets of Making #2 Textiel Museum Tilburg, Netherlands Makers, experts and machines go to extremes In 'Maker's Secrets #2' you will experience how the ideas of the makers are born and where they are developed in intensive collaboration with the experts of the TextielLab. The expo shows work by 10 artists, fashion designers and product designers: Fransje Gimbrère, Indré Svirplyté, Joana Schneider, JAS&CAL, Leonie Schneider, Melonit, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Raw Color, Sofie Leenen and Yamuna Forzani. They work on commission, for their own artistic practice, for a special exhibition or research new technical possibilities for the industry. In Research & Development projects, makers challenge the experts and the machines to go to the extreme. Every creative process is an adventure, with experiments, searching for solutions and making decisions. Maker's Secrets #2 also shows the collaboration between the maker and the technical expert. How is the division of roles and what do they learn from each other? textielmuseum.nl/tentoonstellingen/makersgeheimen-2/ Group
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2022Come Alive Het Nieuwe Muntgebouw Utrecht, Netherlands Het Nieuwe Muntgebouw - COME ALIVE is a large-scale experiential exhibition about eroticism as a life force. Eroticism as the force that reconnects us; as the ability of people to open up to others, to surrender to something bigger than themselves. Intimacy and sensuality help to connect with ourselves and others, especially now that we are hopping from crisis to crisis. More and more people experience insecurity as a daily reality. The clash of old and new values calls for a reflection on what it means to be human and how we can support each other in this. Insecurity turns into a soft weapon by sharing what we do have together: our life force. COME ALIVE is the latest production by the Niet Normaal INT foundation (NNI), curated by Ine Gevers and Morgan Catalina, featuring installations, films, games, fragrance, sound and performances by 40 international artists and designers in the Nieuwe Muntgebouw in Utrecht. The corona pandemic exposes an important truth: new values must replace the old ones. COME ALIVE rejects scarcity thinking, competitiveness, individualization and overconsumption, leading to social anxiety, depression and an exhausted planet. COME ALIVE embraces the very thing that everyone has in abundance: the physicality and vitality to find meaning in forming deeply human connections, both spiritually and physically. History shows how sexuality as a 'wild energy' can reshape societies. For that reason, erotic experiences - and associated communities - are still labeled as dangerous by certain groups. Even today there is still resistance to eroticism and sexuality as an indomitable and uncontrollable force. Oppression of women was and is the basis of well-oiled economies. Liberation from that repressed life force helps us create new values. COME ALIVE makes the energy flow again. come-alive.nl/?lang=nl Group
International exchanges/Residencies
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2022worm rotterdam rotterdam, Netherlands The Angel Delight 2.0 Residency surrounds the concepts and ideologies of Yamuna Forzani’s artistic practice as well as her ideologies and involvement in the Dutch Ballroom scene. During 22nd, 23rd and 25th October there will be two evenings of workshops that give a deeper understanding and context of the ideologies and concepts of Forzanis work. The climax of this residency will be Yamuna Forazni’s fashion presentation on 25th October that will be in the form of a live concert. This show will showcase a select musical talent from the queer scene and showcase Forzani’s latest collection. worm.org/production/angel-delight-2-0-x-snackbar/
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2022Milan, Italy One month residency in Milan in preparation for Salone Del Mobile i-d.vice.com/it/article/pkgyb7/froggy-bum-performance-milano-fotografie
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2021worm rotterdam rotterdam, Netherlands The Angel Delight Residency surrounds the concepts and ideologies of Yamuna Forzani’s Utopia III Ball . During 13- 16 September there will be a week of performative training camps, a series of workshops that give a deeper understanding and context of the ballroom scene. The climax of this residency will be Yamuna Forazni’s fashion show on 24 September. This show will give an insight into the magical world of ballroom and showcase Forzani’s latest collection. worm.org/2021/07/20/angel-delight-residency-yamuna-forzani/
Awards and grants
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2022Fashion design award Dutch Design Awards eindhoven, Netherlands https://www.dutchdesignawards.nl/gallery/the-utopia-ball-x-fashion-show/
Representation
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--Rademakers Gallery Amsterdam, Netherlands https://www.rademakersgallery.com/artists/83-yamuna-forzani/