Yamuna Forzani

Yamuna Forzani (1993) was born in England and currently lives and works in the Netherlands. She graduated from the Textile & Fashion department at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, celebrates the ballroom culture in a multidisciplinary practice that combines fashion, photography, dance, installation, and social design through inclusive public events. Yamuna Forzani is a multidisciplinary artist and queer activist whose practice centers around a desire to build her queer utopia that centers and celebrates her community, making them part of and inspiration of her creative outputs. Yamuna’s work takes form through textile, she explores the medium in collaboration with other design, artistic and social initiatives - often involving, organizing events, dance performances, embedding fashion and costume, public art and versatile installations.

The events she hosts merge practices of other creative fields such as theater, music, performance art and social design. These events serve as platforms where Yamuna seamlessly amalgamates her creative endeavors, allowing her to join her to be a queer activist, which becomes central to her creative practice. As a part of the Kiki House of Angels in the Netherlands and an international member of New York’s House of Comme Des Garçons she is internationally representing the Netherlands in the ballroom scene.

In 2022 she won the Dutch Design Awards for her artistic direction and specifically the annual Utopia Ball x Fashion Show. These events become a shared platform uniting these creative methodologies and paying homage to the queer community while also experimenting with new formats and themes, that merge her textile practice with fashion and social engagement

Recurring and consistent in her practice is her use of knitted textiles, although used through various expressions they are intrinsically the core that ties together the multitude of expressions of Yamuna’s practice. She develops these knitted textiles in Tilburg Textile Museum using industrial knitting techniques such as 3D knitting or jacquard knitting to make couture garments.

It is through her textiles that she knits and connects communities, bodies and creates spaces for these gatherings and common threads to find expression. Her inherent storytelling nature finds manifestation through textiles, serving as tools that bring people together, creating a world—a fantastical interpretation and utopian imaginary that invites others into the embrace of her artistic vision.

In the vast landscape of her multidisciplinary artistry, Yamuna Forzani emerges as a creator shaping her universe, employing various tools and languages to articulate her unique narrative—a narrative that transcends the boundaries of conventional artistic expression.