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Winners of Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge Award announced
A jury of experts, including the fashion-duo Viktor&Rolf and Karin Swerink, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, have awarded the prize to six young fashion designers. They are each creating a new work on the cusp between fashion and art. These new works will be on show for the first time in the exhibition ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’, which will open this autumn in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

The jury is made up of Viktor&Rolf, Karin Swerink, Vassilis Zidianakis (Atopos cvc), Han Nefkens and José Teunissen. The six fashion designers and initiatives are Iris van Herpen (NL), Craig Green (GB), Aftrs/D & K (AU), Olek (PL), Digest Design (CN) and Lucia Cuba (PE). This autumn, their vision on the future of fashion will be on show in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The jury will be assisting the prize winners right up to the opening. The public can also follow this process via a special website that will be launched shortly. The announcement of the Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge Awards marks the official start of the preparations for the fashion exhibition in Rotterdam.

Karin Swerink about the selection: “It had to engage, inspire and surprise me. All six designers met these three criteria." Vassilis Zidianakis (Atopos cvc): “It was clear that the body of work of all 6 designers was comprehensive, distinctive, unique.”

Exhibition
‘The Future of Fashion is Now’ - October 11, 2014 / January 18, 2015 - takes visitors on a journey along the most innovative fashion and fashion talents from all over the world and features work by designers such as Viktor&Rolf, Christophe Coppens, Martin Margiela and Hussein Chalayan. Work by more than sixty international designers is on show, from leading fashion houses to young, up-andcoming talent. The exhibition addresses the critical position young fashion designers adopt towards the fashion system and the role of clothing in today’s society. Sustainability, new technologies and the value of clothing for the identity of an individual or a community are themes with which they open the discussion about fashion of the future.

Jury and scouts
Twenty international scouts each selected two or three designers for the exhibition and the Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge Award. This unusual method of working resulted in a selection from which the jury of experts has now chosen six prize winners.

Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge
Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge is an initiative of writer, benefactor and art activist Han Nefkens and fashion expert José Teunissen, in collaboration with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The initiative’s mission is to support fashion talent working on the cusp of fashion and art. The Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge Award offers designers the opportunity of creating new work, which is then given on perpetual loan to the museum.

Gift
Han Nefkens recently announced that he is donating the latest haute couture collection of Viktor&Rolf to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. This collection attracted considerable attention in the spring of 2013 in Paris and will be on show to the general public for the first time in the autumn exhibition ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’.

Illustrated: Olek. Photo and Make up: Karl Giant © 2012
Winners of Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge Award announced                              
 
 
ArtAids

The ArtAids foundation was set up in 2006 at Han Nefkens’ initiative. ArtAids fights AIDS with the power of art as its most important weapon. ArtAids invites leading artists to produce work that is inspired by AIDS and related problems. These works of art are used to raise the public’s consciousness and to encourage their involvement.

Fundació Han Nefkens

The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.

H+F

Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.