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2016 Profiel prize for José Teunissen

  • ArtEZ Prizewinner
Photo: Koos Breukel
Photo: Koos Breukel

The 2016 Profiel prize has been awarded to fashion theorist and curator José Teunissen (born 1959), former lecturer in Fashion Design at ArtEZ and already associated with the Fashion Design lectorate and the Centre of Expertise Future Makers as a visiting professor. She receives the prize in recognition of the great effort and skill with which she has brought fashion and textiles to the attention of a wider public over the past 25 years. The private ceremony will be held on 30 September, during the preview for her assembled exhibition 'Three Eyes: Five Young Chinese Designers’ in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The exhibition will be open to the public from the following day, Saturday 1 October.

For 2016, the jury has unanimously decided to award the Profiel prize to fashion theorist and curator José Teunissen, in recognition of her innovative approach to fashion and the international scope of her work. The Profiel prize is an initiative by the Profiel foundation and has been awarded every three years since 1990 to a person who has made a special contribution to textile design in the broadest sense of the word. The prize consists of a sum of €3,500 and a trophy designed by Victoria Ledig. Previous laureates include Bart Hess (2013), Lam de Wolf (2010), Felieke van der Leest (2008) and Ulf Moritz (2006).

Passion
José Teunissen trained as a film theorist and has been writing about fashion since the 1990s. As curator of Fashion and Costume at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, she organised high-profile exhibitions of contemporary designers and expanded the fashion collection with contemporary work. As a lecturer at ArtEZ, Teunissen built up an impressive network. On 1 January 2016, she was appointed dean at the School of Design and Technology of the London College of Fashion; in addition, she has been named Professor of Fashion Theory at the University of Arts in London.

Visual culture
With her professional activities as curator, board member and researcher, Teunissen makes an important contribution to critical reflection on the field of fashion design. "Fashion is the mirror of our society and an important part of the contemporary visual culture. It is a topic that deserves serious study", says Teunissen. By means of exhibitions and publications and by initiating projects, Teunissen puts fashion on the international map.

Three Eyes
The presentation of the award will take place on Friday 30 September 2016 during the private preview of the 'Three Eyes' exhibition in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, curated by José Teunissen. In 2015, five young Chinese designers were given an assignment by the Han Nefkens Foundation to create new work for this exhibition, which was previously on display at OCT Art & Design Gallery in Shenzhen, as a supplement to the travelling exhibition 'The Future of Fashion is Now'. The five designs being shown during 'Three Eyes' are linked by the idea that tradition and future must go hand in hand. According to Chinese culture, a designer needs three eyes: two to look into the future and one to look back and reflect on five thousand years of Chinese culture.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication designed by Glamcult Studio. ’Three Eyes: Five Young Chinese Designers’ can be seen from 1 October 2016 to 8 January 2017.

More information on the Profile Foundation: www.stichtingprofiel.eu