Winner of Han Nefkens Fashion Award announced
Rejina Pyo
September 2012
Venue:
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 18-20, Rotterdam
A jury including Viktor & Rolf has announced the winner of the third Han Nefkens Fashion Award. The Korean winner Rejina Pyo will receive a prize of 25,000 Euro and will have a presentation in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the autumn of 2012.
Rejina Pyo (1983, Korea) has won the prestigious Han Nefkens Fashion Award 2012. This is the third time that the biennial prize has been awarded, and this year it was aimed at fashion designers in non-Western and lesser known European countries. The H+F Fashion on the Edge Foundation concentrates on designers who work on the borders of fashion and art. A special jury—Viktor & Rolf, Penny Martin, Han Nefkens and José Teunissen—selected Pyo as the winner. The prize consists of an autumn presentation in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 2012 and prize money of 25,000 Euro, of which 15,000 Euro is intended as a commission for the exhibition.
2012 Winner
Rejina Pyo recently gained her master degree in ‘women’s wear’ from the respected Central Saint Martin’s in London. Her graduation collection combined in a unique way fluid feminine garments with wooden totem sculptures. Pyo combines colour, volume and various textures of materials in a narrative structure with pagan elements, according to the jury report. Pyo’s work has been published in various magazines, including Another magazine and the Italian Vogue, during Pyo’s participation in the London Fashion Week. The unique creations were included in the exhibition ‘ARRRGH! Monsters in Fashion‘ in the Benaki Museum in Athens. The Han Nefkens Fashion Award was founded in 2008. The first winner, the Belgian Christophe Coppens, developed the installation No References in Platform 21 in Amsterdam. The second Han Nefkens Fashion Award winner, Charles LeDray, presented his installation Mensuits, with minute clothing, in 2010 in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Rejina Pyo will present her work in the museum in September 2012.
Long-term loans
The Han Nefkens Fashion Award is part of H+F Fashion on the Edge Foundation. This foundation is an initiative of writer and collector Han Nefkens (Rotterdam, 1954) who collects exceptional fashion items and participates in projects that push the boundaries of fashion. In 2010, H+F Fashion on the Edge Foundation signed a five-year contract with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The acquisitions by the Foundation are housed in the museum, as long-term loans. Nefkens: “For me it’s about much, much more than owning a work of art: it’s about sharing a vision with other people.” Nefkens is also the initiator of the ArtAids Foundation, a foundation that fights AIDS-related issues with art. In June 2011, Nefkens was presented the Silver Carnation by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
The Art of Fashion
During the past six years, H+F Fashion on the Edge Foundation has built up a collection of work by important designers. In 2009 H+F Fashion on the Edge developed The Art of Fashion: Installing allusions that scouted the boundaries between art and fashion. Viktor & Rolf, Hussein Chalayan, Naomi Filmer, Christophe Coppens and Anna-Nicole Ziesche were given the opportunity of producing special work for that exhibition. This year, the exhibition was on show in the Kunstmuseum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
