Friday Night LIVE

Start your weekend with Friday Night LIVE! On each third Friday of the month you will be welcome at the Kunsthal for an exciting and inspiring programme infused with a generous dose of art. For each edition a different Rotterdam partner will be running the show. On Friday 20 February, Fashion in Flux will take over the Kunsthal!

Fashion in Flux is a platform dedicated to a new fashion culture: community-driven, inclusive, open and curious. It focuses on connection and equity, rather than the traditional system that fuels inequality. Based in Rotterdam, the platform connects makers from the Netherlands and abroad, puts urgent issues on the agenda, and gives visibility to new initiatives. 

Otherworlding

During Friday Night LIVE, Fashion in Flux places the theme of otherworlding at the center. Coloring outside the lines. Thinking freely and wildly about what the world could look like—that is otherworlding. The term is used in art, science fiction, and activism to imagine worlds in which other forms of life, relationships, and values are possible.

Fashion in Flux draws inspiration from the work of Iris van Herpen. In her collections, including Earthrise, van Herpen poetically draws attention to the future of our planet and humanity’s place within it. The algae dress from the Sympoiesis collection shows how our relationship to fashion changes when we wear living garments.

Fashion in Flux celebrates the power of this kind of radical imagination during Kunsthal LIVE. How can fashion be used to envision worlds we do not yet know, but may come to desire? Fashion lovers, science fiction enthusiasts, and archaeologists of the future—everyone is welcome to an evening full of ideas.

Bites & drinks

During Friday Night LIVE, the tastiest bites are back on the menu. And are you coming to the Kunsthal with your Friday Night LIVE ticket between 17:00 and 19:00 hrs? Then a complimentary welcome drink (wine, beer, or soda) will be waiting for you!

programme
 Artist Talk & Installation

Multidisciplinary artist Noëlle van Dijk develops digitally driven works within her practice, ranging from large-scale installations to video projections in public space. Her work aims to evoke a sense of wonder and challenge viewers to engage with social issues from a fresh perspective. She seeks to encourage reflection while simultaneously bringing hope and optimism into the world around her. Central to her artistic vision is the importance of people’s inner worlds, including her own. During Friday Night LIVE, she will present her Faux Film series and join the programme for an artist talk and Q&A.

Artist Talk: Berend Brus

Designer Berend Brus creates collections in which fashion functions as an artistic statement. Their work is known for addressing social issues and for its high level of craftsmanship, luxury, and refinement. Alongside their autonomous practice, Berend and their studio also produce bespoke looks for performances, theatre, and television. Marta Musial is a photographer and AI image-maker who brings together art, fashion, and emerging technology to explore the human body, movement, and the relationship between nature and culture. Together, they collaborated on The Copper Collection. Join the artist talk to listen in and ask your questions to these makers.

Artist talk & film: Gwladys Gambie

The work of visual artist Gwladys Gambie focuses on the female experience and the representation of Caribbean Black bodies. Drawing inspiration from the lush landscape of Martinique, Gwladys conjures a dreamlike and fantastical universe to reveal the dramatic and often far harsher realities of so-called “paradise.” Intertwining plants, topographies, and Créole and Afro-Caribbean narratives, she creates a world that speaks of domination, power, race, fantasy, and sexuality. Within this landscape, she moves between sensuality, eroticism, and the violence of the stifling colonial times in which we still live. Join her for an artist talk and a screening of her film Manman Chadwon.

Music: milesdavis

Without confining herself to a particular genre, dilesmavis finds her comfort zone in blurring the lines between shifting moods, rhythms and sonic narratives. With a background in architecture and urban design, it felt both natural and necessary to delve deeper into the sonic world—something not often discussed or contemplated in her professional field. She accommodates for a playful, often lyrical and upbeat range of selections spanning percussion, experimental electronica, techno and hip hop. dilesmavis is a resident at Operator Radio in Rotterdam and StrandedFM in Utrecht.

Workshop & installation: Kalkidan Hoex 

Under the name TheNEWtribe, artist and designer Kalkidan explores the idea of home as an evolving concept, shaped by displacement, resilience, and connection. Working with materials such as metal, textile, and photography, she creates environments in which the familiar and the unfamiliar coexist, giving rise to a new visual language. Through her practice, Kalkidan constructs immersive worlds where memory, identity, and belonging intertwine. During this evening, she opens a pop-up workshop in which your self-made necklace or brooch becomes a universe of its own, shaped through the use of colour, shadow, and light.

film programme: fashionclash

FASHIONCLASH is an international and interdisciplinary platform for fashion. Over the past 15 years, it has grown from an annual fashion event into an institution for groundbreaking fashion projects and experimental crossovers. FASHIONCLASH holds a unique position in the fashion world as both a spotlight and a springboard for emerging talent from the Netherlands and abroad. For Friday Night LIVE, Fashion in Flux and FASHIONCLASH made a selection of pioneering films that have previously been showcased by the platform.

MUSIC: Christian Streit Smith

Christian Streit Smith is a percussionist working in the field of experimental music. Originally from Ohio, he moved to the Hague in 2016 after completing his second master's degree in contemporary music at the Basel Hochschule für Musik.  As a dj, he is interested in creating focused and communal listening experiences on and off the dance floor. He currently has a bi-monthly show on Stranded FM called 'C. Smith's Midwest Meltdown'. 

Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses

Iris van Herpen (1984)  is one of the most avant-garde couturiers of her generation. With her pioneering use of innovative techniques in her profession, Van Herpen breaks with fashion conventions while at the same time embracing the traditional craftsmanship of haute couture. The exhibition Sculpting the Senses is a sensory exploration of the designer’s universe and presents an immersive retrospective that brings together fashion, contemporary art, design, and science. The Kunsthal is showcasing over a hundred iconic creations that illustrate how Van Herpen is constantly stretching the boundaries of haute couture.