PHOTO BY ANA KOVAC
designboom
24.09.2014
BIO 50 experiments with design of everyday life in ljubljana
by Trent Fredrickson
24.09.2014
for decades, design biennials have served as reflections on current values in culture, through the display of refined, carefully conceived, and often industrially-made objects. for its 24th incarnation and 50th anniversary, rather than a typical exhibition of finalized products, ljubljana’s design biennial (BIO) has transformed itself into a six-month collaborative process. the various projects’ results, which in many cases are still in progress, have recently opened for exhibition under the title ‘3, 2, 1 … TEST’.
each project questions the design of everyday life and investigates systems through which society operates in relation to specific themes, which include: affordable living, knowing food, public water public space, walking the city, hidden crafts, the fashion system, hacking households, nanotourism, engine blocks, observing space, and designing life.
the experimental framework of BIO 50 is led by curator jan boelen, who states the the biennial serves as a platform, ‘to build upon its own tradition and history, advancing into an experimental, collaborative territory where design is employed and implemented as a tool to question and transform ideas about industrial production, public and private space, and pre-established systems and networks.’ curatorial efforts are in collaboration with maja vardjan and cvetka požar of MAO (slovenia’s national museum of architecture and design), the institution responsible for the biennial’s organization.
to provide outside perspective on each of the design themes, an international jury was brought to evaluate the collaborative efforts, comprised of industrial designer konstantin grcic, writer and critic alice rawsthorn, and slovenian educator and designer saša j. mächtig. with optimistic response they express, ‘in an intensely turbulent era when we face radical, potentially destructive changes on so many fronts, BIO 50 plays an indispensable role in suggesting possible solutions.’
based on their ambitious efforts to rethink contemporary modes of tourism, the award for best collaboration went to ‘nanotourism’. led by team mentors aljoša dekleva and tina gregorič, and in collaboration with the AA visiting school slovenia, the group not only imagined possible restructurings of global systems but also designed alternative mechanisms for sleeping and converted their museum display space into a free and engaging hotel.
︎read more on designboom.com
each project questions the design of everyday life and investigates systems through which society operates in relation to specific themes, which include: affordable living, knowing food, public water public space, walking the city, hidden crafts, the fashion system, hacking households, nanotourism, engine blocks, observing space, and designing life.
the experimental framework of BIO 50 is led by curator jan boelen, who states the the biennial serves as a platform, ‘to build upon its own tradition and history, advancing into an experimental, collaborative territory where design is employed and implemented as a tool to question and transform ideas about industrial production, public and private space, and pre-established systems and networks.’ curatorial efforts are in collaboration with maja vardjan and cvetka požar of MAO (slovenia’s national museum of architecture and design), the institution responsible for the biennial’s organization.
to provide outside perspective on each of the design themes, an international jury was brought to evaluate the collaborative efforts, comprised of industrial designer konstantin grcic, writer and critic alice rawsthorn, and slovenian educator and designer saša j. mächtig. with optimistic response they express, ‘in an intensely turbulent era when we face radical, potentially destructive changes on so many fronts, BIO 50 plays an indispensable role in suggesting possible solutions.’
based on their ambitious efforts to rethink contemporary modes of tourism, the award for best collaboration went to ‘nanotourism’. led by team mentors aljoša dekleva and tina gregorič, and in collaboration with the AA visiting school slovenia, the group not only imagined possible restructurings of global systems but also designed alternative mechanisms for sleeping and converted their museum display space into a free and engaging hotel.
︎read more on designboom.com
nanotourism.org 2020 ––––– impressum