Rafaela Dražić is an award-winning visual communication designer, recognized for her work with cultural and non-governmental organizations worldwide. She is the creative force behind the graphic identity for BIO28.
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WHAT INSPIRED THE GRAPHIC IDENTITY YOU CREATED FOR BIO28? 

I’ve been intrigued by the ideas of secrecy, uncanny and mystery.

Therefore, I chose not to give “a key” to the audience, aiming to create something you won’t get bored after watching for a half of a minute. 

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DESIGN PROCESS FOR THIS PROJECT?


I did a lot of hand drawings, which is something I don’t frequently do, before getting to the stage of 3D modeling when Jakub Wróblewski wonderfully executed the illustrations. 

I simply felt that this was the only way to deconstruct the flower as a motive and its symbols.

HOW DO YOU THINK GRAPHIC DESIGN INFLUENCES THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE OF A BIENNIAL LIKE BIO28?


Design can lead you in many different directions and that is the best thing about it.

For BIO28 I decided to make visual identity in three phases, which I call: “The Roots”, “The Bloom” and “The Compost”. Rather than sticking with just one uniform solution which reproduces itself from the beginning to the end of the manifestation.

HOW DO YOU INCORPORATE THE THEME “DOUBLE AGENTS” INTO YOUR GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR BIO28?


I was thinking about flowers as messengers of complexity. For example, they can be both medicine and poison. 

DO YOU SPEAK FLOWER?

Sure I do.

IN ADDITION, COULD YOU RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING TO FUTURE VISITORS OF BIO28:

Book: Poems by Katalin Ladik


Film: Playtime by Jacques Tati


Song/Performer: Through The Looking Glass by Midori Takada

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www.rafaeladrazic.net

The Indigo Festival Ljubljana will host Alexandra Midal, curator of the 28th Biennial of Design, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, at Cukrarna in Ljubljana. ⁠ ⁠

⁠Lecture | Murder is a Design Hobby ⁠

The Indigo Festival Ljubljana will host Alexandra Midal, curator of the 28th Biennial of Design, on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, at Cukrarna in Ljubljana. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠Lecture | Murder is a Design Hobby ⁠ ⁠ ⁠“It is no coincidence that criminology claims to be a model and metaphor for the art visitor in search of clues that will enable them to interpret works of art that appear silent or mysterious, or for the exhibition curator who uses the narrative motors of fright, suspense, and revelation to construct the itinerary of an exhibition. ⁠ ⁠ According to Walter Benjamin, a line runs between “private persons and […] bourgeois,” who scatter clues within interiors. The space linked to the crime connects two distinct places: on one side, the large-scale dwelling of H. H. Holmes, considered the first serial killer in the United States; and on the other, the miniature crime scenes reproduced in Victorian doll’s houses by Frances Glessner Lee, the inventor of modern forensic science. Comparing these two case studies invites us to re-examine the expography by encouraging visitors to decipher traces and clues. These questions have inspired the upcoming BIO28 Biennial, titled Double Agent, which invites visitors to become detectives and attempt to decipher the intermedial political feminist tradition of encrypted messages hidden within flowers, or floriography.” – Alexandra Midal

Read more: https://indigo.ooo/en/lecture/alexandra-midal-2/

Emma Pflieger is a French designer and co-founder of the innovative design studio Studio Pflieger-Foeglé, which employs a research-driven cross-disciplinary approach to craft spaces, installations, and graphic design. ⁠

IS THERE A PARTICULAR MOMENT OR EXPERIENCE THAT YOU CONNECT TO THE THEME DOUBLE AGENT? ⁠
E. P.: ⁠I was very excited to share with a book that I had read, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a young woman (Mary) who is locked in a room by her husband (John). He imposes a rest cure on her, making her believe that she is suffering from “temporary nervous depression” after the birth of their baby. Not only is the protagonist trapped in a room, but she also feels trapped in the wallpaper that covers the walls. She begins to see the floral serpentine & the curves of the patterns on the wall come to life and sees prisoners like herself being held in this room. She decides to tear off the wallpaper to free the trapped women and herself. The fact that the protagonist of this feminist novel is locked in a room by a man, resonates with how women have been defined by men as sensitive, emotional, and pure – like a flower.

Alexandra was obviously familiar with the novel, which is also to be a part of the exhibition, and told me that it was one of the readings she used to recommend to all her female students as one of first feminist novels/essays.

I was very honoured that she asked me to work with her on this meaningful, bold and highly political project. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

ARE THERE ANY DISCOVERIES THAT HAVE SURPRISED YOU IN PREPARATION FOR THE BIENNIAL? ⁠ ⁠
E. P.:“Girls don’t have any fun!” say boys, scornfully; and they don’t have very much. What they do have must come, like their bread and butter, on lines of sex. Some man must give them what amusement they have, as he must give them everything else. Men have filled the world with games and sports, from the noble contests of the Olympic plain to the brain and body training sports of to-day, good, bad, and indifferent. Through all the ages the men have played; and the women have looked on, when they were asked. Even the amusing occupation of seeing other people do things was denied them, unless they were invited by the real participants. The “queen of the ball-room” is but a wall-flower, unless she is asked to dance by the real king.
 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics, 1898 ⁠ ⁠

 

WHAT EXCITES YOU THE MOST ABOUT THE BIO 28 DOUBLE AGENT – DO YOU SPEAK FLOWER? ⁠
E. P.: ⁠Two rooms : one in the castle and one room in Isis Gallery. But I won’t spoil it. ⁠ ⁠

DO YOU SPEAK FLOWER? ⁠

Video was originally featured in a 2017 interview with The Washington Post about the film “The Post.” ⁠ ⁠

 

WHICH BOOK, FILM, AND SONG DO YOU RECOMMEND TO FUTURE VISITORS OF BIO28? ⁠

Book:Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Film: Bouquets d’image, Rose Lowder, 1995-95
Song: Flowers, Miley Cyrus

Join us for the opening of the 28th edition of BIO Ljubljana, the oldest and one of the leading design biennials in the world.

The event will take place at the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from November 21, 2024, to April 6, 2025. The opening will be held on November 21, 2024.

Under the curatorship of Alexandra Midal and Emma Pflieger, BIO28 titled “Double Agent – Do You Speak Flower?” will bring together innovative designers, architects, and researchers from around the world. This year’s theme delves into the rich, symbolic language of floriography, examining its role in conveying hidden messages and resisting oppression.

The biennial is organized by the Museum of Architecture and Design and the Centre for Creativity. It will feature the “Double Agent” exhibition, a series of exciting new commissions, and a vibrant program of talks, workshops, and engaging events. A city-wide program of exhibits and events will be announced soon.

The visual identity for BIO28 was designed by Rafaela Dražić.

Alexandra Midal is a professor at the University of Art and Design HEAD in Geneva and Head of the Department of Critical Thinking at Ensci-Les Ateliers in Paris. A distinguished art and design historian, she combines practice and theory-based research as an artist-curator, theoretician and film essayist.  Her research explores the blind spots and grey areas of design history, as evident in her two latest books, The Murder Factory (Sternberg Press, 2023) and Design by Accident: For a New History of Design (Sternberg Press, 2019). She studied literature, architecture and art history at Princeton University (NJ) and in Paris, completing her doctoral thesis at Paris Sorbonne while a Rome Prize recipient in architecture at Villa Medici. She has curated a number of international exhibitions about visual culture, design, and politics, such as Top Secret: Cinema and Espionage and Tomorrow Now – When Design Meets Science Fiction. Her films, including Mind’s Eyes, Possessed, and Heaven is a State of Mind, have been screened in museums across the globe. ⁠
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IS THERE A PARTICULAR MOMENT OR EXPERIENCE THAT TRIGGERED THE DECISION FOR THE THEME DOUBLE AGENT? ⁠
A. M.: Few years, ago while having a breakfast discussion with artist Thomas Demand, he devised the particularity of the representation of the governmental public figures of North Korea. He said that for a long time, they would use a visual representation of flowers to portray them in the public arena. I was right away fascinated by the way it could prove to be useful, as you can make them talk and appear as you want, even after their death. In this pre-AI mass media propaganda system, I was contemplating the political strategy within such a simple system, that was reenacting the dystopian Orwell’s seminal 1984 image appearance of deceased leaders. The concept of political manipulation by forms, and grey zones, is the core of all my research, from my exhibition on cinema, design and espionage : Top Secret to my books Subliminal on the Edge or Girls: Hypnotic Facism. ⁠The perspective of a double language and the idea of a crypted message, or subtext, runs along every single medium and discipline from psychoanalysis to literature, from the small talk to politics, and of course from design to the visual arts. But to transfer this very question to feminism: in a time of truly worrying backlash against women, we need a call for urgency. ⁠Interestingly, though flowers are one of the most common topics one comes across in regard to anti-capitalism and ecology within art and design, it is frequently omitted that behind the recurrent androcentric metonymy between a woman and a flower, and the commodification of women, feminists have invented a great number of secret languages within flowers to act and resist. As feminism is under attack , I believe it is time to explore and share all these issues with a large audience. And as Emma Pflieger from Studio Pflieger Foegle has worked on conspiracy theories with her acclaimed Flat Earth project entitled Keep it Flat, which endorsed the construction of propaganda, I invited her to join me for this project. ⁠ ⁠

ARE THERE ANY DISCOVERIES THAT HAVE SURPRISED YOU IN PREPARATION FOR THE BIENNIAL?
A. M.: ⁠The hidden existence of a snake in the Museum’s basement archives : Spooky ! ⁠ ⁠

WHAT EXCITES YOU THE MOST ABOUT THE BIO 28 DOUBLE AGENT – DO YOU SPEAK FLOWER?
A. M.: The Biennial narrative deals with surprise and discoveries. Opposed to the usual exhibitions that accumulate great works, and claim their statements and ideas, BIO28 is very open and works as a plot would. Lure, encryptions and evidence in various places will drive visitors to the opposite of passivity, as in one of the last sections of the show, they will face a surprising twist, and realize that the floral discourse works as a twofold ruse that has fooled them. The show respects and praises the intelligence of the visitor, and I can’t wait to see if it works, or not.

DO YOU SPEAK FLOWER?
A. M.: Don’t you know that a double Agent always keeps their secret? ⁠ ⁠

WHICH BOOK, FILM, AND SONG DO YOU RECOMMEND TO FUTURE VISITORS OF BIO28? ⁠
Book: Keith Melton and Robert Wallace, The official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception
Film: Jonathan Glazer, A Zone of Interest
Song: Miley Cyrus, Flowers

To review the ideation phase, the BIO28 team, curator Alexandra Midal with assistant curator Emma Pflieger, mentors of the production platform, and team members met via video call last week. The BIO28 Double Agent – Do You Speak Flower? The Production Platform schedule was briefly reviewed before the meeting officially started. Following that, other project presentations were made, presenting inventive ideas and creative workflows from involved groups. The talks explored issues such as natural materials, cultural preservation, public involvement, and sustainable urban areas, showcasing a variety of design techniques and approaches. Every team contributed a distinct viewpoint that will give the BIO28 Production Platform’s exhibition an important and original component.

The ideation phase is coming to an end with the final reports being submitted. We look forward to the following phases, which include the November exhibit setup and the production phase beforehand. The opening event at the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana on November 21, 2024, will surely be the high point of BIO28 since it will allow all attendees to see the result of months of research and hard work.

This year celebrates the 60th anniversary of BIO and the 10th year of the Production Platform’s research. As we near the start of the 28th Design Biennale in Ljubljana, you can follow regular news on our existing communication channels.

The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana recently hosted the kick-off event for the BIO Production Platforms. Bringing together the BIO team, select teams from an open call, and mentors, the event marked the beginning of what promises to be an innovative journey. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

The event unfolded with introductions by Hana Čeferin, the head of BIO28, setting the stage for a day focused on collaboration and exploration. Following this, Maja Vardjan, the director of MAO, provided a historical perspective on MAO’s role and its longstanding connection to the Biennial of Design (BIO), highlighting the institution’s commitment to fostering creative endeavors. ⁠ ⁠⁠

Anja Zorko, representing the Center for Creativity, underscored the importance of creating an environment conducive to innovation. Emma Pflieger, the assistant curator, then introduced the theme of BIO28: “Double Agent – Do You Speak Flower?,” sparking curiosity and intrigue among participants. ⁠ ⁠⁠

Each production platform took center stage, offering insights into their unique visions and objectives, providing ample material for contemplation and discussion. The selected teams, chosen through an open call, shared their aspirations. Groups were then formed, and participants met with mentors such as El Ultimo Grito, Michelle & Grashina, dach&zephir, and Polonca Lovšin for guidance. ⁠ ⁠

With plans in place and foundations laid, the BIO Production Platforms are set to redefine the boundaries of design and creativity in the coming months. Through collaboration, exploration, and a commitment to the production platform project, these platforms are poised to leave an indelible mark on the BIO28 exhibition.

26 September 2023

BIO28: Double Agent
November 2024 – April 2025

The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) is pleased to announce the appointment of curator and professor Alexandra Midal as the curator for the 28th edition of the Biennial of Design (BIO), Europe’s longest-standing design biennial. BIO, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024, is organized by MAO in cooperation with the Centre for Creativity (CzK). BIO28, titled Double Agent, will be held between November 2024 and April 2025 in Ljubljana.

Alexandra Midal is a professor at the University of Art and Design HEAD in Geneva and Head of the Department of Critical Thinking at Ensci-Les Ateliers in Paris. A distinguished art and design historian, she combines practice and theory-based research as an artist-curator, theoretician and film essayist. Her research explores the blind spots and grey areas of design history, as evident in her two latest books, The Murder Factory (Sternberg Press, 2023) and Design by Accident: For a New History of Design (Sternberg Press, 2019). She studied literature, architecture and art history at Princeton University (NJ) and in Paris, completing her doctoral thesis at Paris Sorbonne while a Rome Prize recipient in architecture at Villa Medici. She has curated a number of international exhibitions about visual culture, design, and politics, such as Top Secret: Cinema and Espionage and Tomorrow Now – When Design Meets Science Fiction. Her films, including Mind’s Eyes, Possessed, and Heaven is a State of Mind, have been screened in museums across the globe.

“I am thrilled to work with the BIO team for the next edition of the Ljubljana Design Biennial. This event provides a unique opportunity to engage in a dialogue on historical and contemporary design issues. My commitment is to illuminate alternative design perspectives and the diverse voices within the field from an international standpoint. I am deeply interested in reevaluating the concept of a Double Agent, which will uncover itself as a narrative linking a seemingly mundane flower to its hidden, cryptic, and secretive role in shaping identities and politics. I am excited to showcase that BIO is not just an exhibition but also a platform, a laboratory for exploration, and a crossroads for research and societal engagement throughout its entire duration.”

– Alexandra Midal, curator of BIO28.

In addition, Emma Pflieger has been selected as the assistant curator. She is a French designer and co-founder of the innovative design studio Studio Pflieger-Foeglé, which employs a research-driven cross-disciplinary approach to craft spaces, installations, and graphic design.

“Since its inception at the height of the modernist movement in Slovenia, BIO has witnessed numerous shifts and developments within the discipline of design. By breaking away from the narrow and strictly disciplinary concept of design, the last four editions of BIO have promoted extensive investigations of various interdisciplinary intersections. Through her ground breaking research and projects, Alexandra Midal is an uncompromising curator who excels at establishing and maintaining such intersections. Therefore, we are thrilled to have her as the curator of BIO28, scheduled for November 2024.”

– Maja Vardjan, the newly appointed acting director of MAO.

The unveiling of the BIO28 curatorial framework is scheduled for December 2023, which will coincide with the launch of an open call inviting designers, creatives, and spatial practitioners, as well as a special call for video and filmmakers to participate in the BIO28 Design Film Festival.

More about Alexandra here>>

More about MAO here>>

The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in collaboration with the Centre for Creativity is launching an Open Call for participation in Double Agent – the 28th Biennial of Design, curated by Alexandra Midal.

Political, bold, vibrant, and provocative, Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? examines the figure of floriography, a code hidden within flowers to transmit secret information. The exhibition draws on critical theory to define self-identification as an aesthetic and political act that resonates with vanquished, marginalized, forgotten, or invisible minorities. Given that flowers represent both the commodification of women into an idealized beauty paradigm and serve as a feminist, anti-colonial, gender, and queer cryptology, the title Double Agent reflects this dual perspective. The Biennial displays an ongoing investigation that questions the role of the exhibition to provide answers, and instead wishes to open a series of conversations with designers, artists, and the public.

The Double Agent’s production platform ensures that BIO is a living design organism responding to the needs of society and the design field. This year, we will develop projects aimed at intertwining diverse media and disciplines such as design, craft, applied arts, and films into processes and results that contribute to the theme and deliver a renewed perspective on design.

Selected participants will address the topics of materiality, language, design as a public tool, marginalised communities and film, together with eight esteemed designers who will lead the groups as mentors until the exhibition presentation.

BIO28 Double Agent mentors are matali crasset, dach&zephir, El Último Grito, Polonca Lovšin and Studio Yukiko in collaboration with Grashina Gabelmann.

Who are we inviting?

The Open Call invites local and regional design and interdisciplinary collectives to participate in the Double Agent production platform in one of the five project themes of the BIO28 and the Centre for Creativity production platform.

We are looking for established collectives, teams, or newly-formed project groups who are able to participate online and on site in the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana from March 2024 until November 2024.

BIO28 amplifies the biennial’s strategy to reflect on and deepen inquiries into the future, while strengthening local impacts. The emphasis will be on design that responds to local needs and contexts, the projects will draw on local conditions, resources and materials.

Applicants will be selected and invited by BIO28 curator Alexandra Midal in collaboration with the mentors and the advisory board of BIO28. The teams selected from the Open Call will each work with a design mentor and various local organisations, partners and experts.

The OPEN CALL invites you to participate in the Double Agent production platform by addressing one of the following themes:

1. Beeswax Studio and Grotto

One collective will participate in the The Beeswax Studio and Grotto platform led by matali crasset. matali crasset has championed design at the crossroads of artistic, anthropological and social practice. She is working towards creative, living and everyday design and asking herself how can design contribute to living together and support us in the contemporary world?

After creating one of the most successful spatial installations Common stove for 25th edition of the biennial Faraway So Close, the participation of the local community echoes into this production platform.

This production platform revisits an ancestral practice in a different way, so as to reinvest our sensibility and allow us to reconfigure ourselves. Beekeeping, which is a Slovenian way of life and a major activity in the country, can help to establish a process that is more respectful and less destructive to our ecosystem. Building on this foundation, and using honey-producing flowers as a starting point, Beeswax Studio and Grotto proposes to focus not on honey, but on beeswax. This natural substance says a lot about our contemporary world: it has to stand up to stiff competition from industrial waxes made from soya (the bean), palm oil and paraffin (via petroleum). Beeswax is obviously the most natural, and it transcends the dividing lines between the plant and animal worlds, raising questions about our own place within the living world. So what remains to be explored is the place, if any, that human beings might occupy within it.

The Beeswax Studio and Grotto platform will consist of a wax workshop that will host research focused on beeswax, exploring natural dyeing using local plants and minerals, the creation of low-cost molds, and the manufacturing of modeling wax, as well as waterproofing textiles and wood. During the upcoming BIO28, a series of public workshops will take place where participants will engage in collaborative experimentation with wax.

The multidisciplinary design team may include: product and object designers, art / architecture / design historians, textile designers (specialised in natural dyes), beekeepers, botanists, carpenters, woodworkers, ecologists, flower experts, children’s educators, ecotourism experts.

How it works: The platform will consist of three 3-day workshops (May, September, October 2024) and a series of public events.

2. Not Erased

We’re inviting a team to participate in the Not Erased project together with mentors dach&zephir. Graduates of the National School of Decorative Arts of Paris, Dimitri Zephir and Florian Dach founded their creative studio dach&zephir in 2016. Mixing fervor and poetry, their projects echo the thinking of Martinican poet Édouard Glissant and celebrate the urgent and necessary diversity of the world. For the duo, stories and history are starting points in design, acknowledging that objects are mediums for our minds. They believe in the statement that we can’t move forward without acknowledging the past and history.

The production platform Not Erased is a continuation of the studio’s reflections on marginalised, minorityized, or erased histories in national narratives and the ways in which they can be reactivated in a contemporary creative dynamic. Conceived as a research and creation unit on the subject of Slovenia’s erased people – a group of communities from the former Yugoslavia residing in the country without citizenship rights because they have been erased from Slovene administrative files – the participants will be invited to reflect on the potential manifestations, reactivations, and/or reinscriptions of these individuals and their histories in a national narrative. The aim of the platform will be to form different narratives or backdrops for the creation of one or more works in lace.

How do you tell the story of a lifetime of fractures and struggles in the creation of a motif? How do you represent the loss and erasure of a nationality? What can these other identities – in terms of their cultures and imaginations – bring to the creation of a motif? In other words, what are the modalities of lacemaking and its motif? Bobbin lacemaking – an ancestral skill in Slovenia and a Unesco intangible cultural heritage site – becomes the setting for these fragile stories and identities. Using this know-how, which is rooted in the country’s culture and imagination, the aim is to reflect on how the stories of the erased are inscribed in the collective imagination, and possibly on new ways of creating motifs. The various trades will form multi-disciplinary work teams coordinated by a lace-maker.

The multidisciplinary design team may include: product designers, graphic designers, illustrators, photographers, artists, lace designers, lace makers, activists and experts for the erased.

How it works: The platform will consist of a one-week workshop (end of March 2024), remote work, and a final on-site workshop (late August 2024).

3. “And then there was Poppy”: Interlacing place and fiction into new creative geographies

We invite a collective who will develop a project under the mentorship of Roberto Feo and Rosario Hurtado from the collective El Último Grito. Roberto Feo is Professor of Practice at Goldsmiths, University of London, while Rosario Hurtado co-directs the MA Space and Communication at HEAD – Genève. Their practice responds to an ongoing investigation into the nature and representation of systems.

The aim of this production platform is to create a short film about floriography and the themes of the Double Agent biennial that will simultaneously replace the exhibition catalogue. The film will act as a remnant of the event, a collection of intertwined actions, moments, sights, triggers, and keepsakes inspired by elements from the curatorial texts as well as selected works and the biennial site itself. The film will premiere in Ljubljana, London, Geneva, and Paris. Eventually, the film will be streamed online.

Stories do not have a beginning or an end… not really… they seem to start somewhere and end somewhere else… but not really…. Stories have a protagonist… but not really… stories are just mere adulterated perspectives, a result of “mythification”, an essential simplification required to comprehend reality.

Alpha 60 explains, in its guttural computerised voice, that “reality is far too complex for oral transmission”, so we must create myths/stories that simplify its content for us to understand. The Goddard mastermind imparting some ‘Borgesian’ wisdom.

This story is no different. It does not really start here and will, actually, never end… it’s just a moment in time narrated from a singular perspective… which will eventually stop being interesting or relevant for a narrator to tell or an audience to listen to.

– El Último Grito, 2024

The multidisciplinary design team may include: actors and performers, designers (props and space), filmmakers, sound engineers, musicians, storytellers, scriptwriters, anyone with a passion or enthusiasm for film.

How it works: The film-fiction will be produced during two consecutive workshops (September and November 2024), first developing the narrative, then shooting the film on the site of the biennial.

5. Movement for Public Speech

We invite you to join the platform Movement for Public Speech* mentored by Polonca Lovšin. Polonca Lovšin is an architect and artist based in Ljubljana. In her work, she focuses on self-organized initiatives and alternative ways of living and working related to architecture, urban planning, and environmental issues. She is exhibiting her work internationally in solo and group exhibitions and has been awarded numerous grants, awards and residencies.

Movement for Public Speech is a sculpture in public space, a monument to public speaking and participation. By definition, public speaking is the discussion of people in a public space about important issues in society. This project challenges the relationship between the audience and the speaker and portrays this relationship as interdependent. The speaker’s speech can only be heard over the sound system if he is supported by the audience, who synchronously press, pull, or step on the manufactured devices. The foundation of this project is the collaboration of two different roles – those who move to support the speaker and the speakers themselves. The common goal of the “movement” is to visualize the interdependence of all involved, who support each other and build alliances – a community.

Today, in times of crises (economic, political, social, and environmental), it is essential to speak in public about the issues of human society, which are often overlooked, forgotten, or insufficiently present in public discourse. It is equally important that we listen to them and hear them. The project, which is playful and serious at the same time, demonstrates the importance of cooperation and interdependence to achieve a common goal and thereby create a vision of a different society.

The Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant that sets a trap to surprise and eat the fly, serves as the intellectual and design framework for the BIO28 edition of Movement for Public Speech. Are we humans caught in a trap of our own making? Maybe we can resolve the trap by supporting and listening to each other, creating friendships, building communities, and creating a vision of an entangled future.

*The Movement for Public Speech is an ongoing project by architect and artist Polonca Lovšin, which was first installed in 2015 on Liberty Square in Maribor as part of the Maribor Art Gallery’s art in public space program. Since then, it has been performed six times in different cities (Maribor, Kočevje, Ljubljana, Feldbach (Austria), Strasbourg (France)), activating different audiences through collective action and building new communities.

The multidisciplinary design team may include: designers, architects, spatial practitioners, actors, philosophers, poets, writers, dancers, theatre enthusiasts, artists focused on public space, participation or sound.

How it works: The platform will consist of four workshops (April – May 2024), on-site implementation of the project, and a public programme during the biennial.

5. Cattleya

We invite a collective who will develop a project under the mentorship of Michelle Phillips (Studio Yukiko) and Grashina Gabelmann (Flaneur Magazine). Studio Yukiko is a Berlin-based creative agency specializing in creative direction, art direction, brand strategy, concept generation and graphic design for commercial and cultural clients alike. The studio is producing award-winning work, unearthing narratives, telling stories of local communities worldwide, and immersing themselves in the trends of internet and youth culture. Grashina Gabelmann is a founding member and editor-in-chief of the site specific, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary project called Flaneur Magazine. She works as a writer and translator. Her creative practices also involve listening as an act of care, giving political/creative workshops to kids, teenagers, and the elderly, and collecting stories in different communities.

The production platform Cattleya invites you to deconstruct the androcentric correlation of the female-as-flower. The name of this project is a glimpse into Marcel Proust’s famous concept of cattleya (referring both to “making love” as well as the Cattleya orchid flower) from his opera In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. The participants will reinterpret the mundane patriarchal idioms associating women to flowers by examining the rich connections between language and image that are pervasive in Slovene poetry, literature, the arts, advertising, and elsewhere as well. Therefore, it will question, criticize, and reformulate these relationships into a series of provocative and bold visual productions. Through zines, posters, and other manifestations of graphic design, the participants will focus on idiomatic expressions related to the comparison between women and flowers, thus visually exploring the cultural significance of these expressions.

The multidisciplinary design team may include: Graphic designers, illustrators, writers, poets, linguists, photographers, botanists, historians.

How it works: The platform will consist of a one week workshop after the kick off event (March 2024), followed by remote work.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

PROCEDURE AND CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE CALL

Jury

Alexandra Midal, BIO28 curator
Emma Pflieger, BIO28 assistant curator
Michelle Millar Fisher, BIO28 Advisory Board member
Barbara Predan, BIO28 Advisory Board member
Oli Stratford, BIO28 Advisory Board member
Renata Salecl, BIO28 Advisory Board member
Maja Vardjan, Acting Director of MAO – Museum of Architecture and Design
Anja Zorko, Head of the Centre for Creativity
Hana Čeferin, Head of BIO

Timeline

31 January 2024 – 1 March 2024
Duration of the BIO28 Double Agent Open Call

12 – 13 March 2024
Selection process, online meetings with the participants

23 – 25 March 2024
Kick-off event on video platforms with Alexandra Midal, mentors and participants of the production platforms

April 2024 – September 2024
Production process

21 November 2024
Opening of the BIO28 Double Agent.

Selection procedure

Applicants should apply to the call through this form. From among the proposals submitted on time and in full, the jury will select the teams for the BIO28 Production Platforms in a two-stage procedure:

Stage 1: review of the proposals received and shortlisting;
Stage 2: interview with the applicants selected in the first stage and final selection of the projects.

Beneficiaries

By responding to the call, participants agree to the procedure and conditions of the call. Participation is open to groups consisting of members who are Slovenian citizens, residents, or based in Slovenia and active in the fields of design, art, architecture, and other fields mentioned in the descriptions of the platforms. The selected teams must appoint a member or team leader who will be in charge of workflow, timeline, budget oversight, spending, and reporting. The person will also be the main contact for the BIO and CzK teams. The applicants are committed to carrying out the project within the agreed timetable and budget and to participating in regular meetings with the BIO team.

Answers to questions

Questions about the call can be sent to projekti@mao.si until 25 February, 2024, inclusive. Please indicate “BIO28: Open Call” as the subject of your message.

Selection criteria

– originality and topicality of the application
– clarity and comprehensiveness of the application
– relevance to the theme of the chosen production platform

Budget for the implementation of the production platforms

The groups will be allocated funds to carry out the project and should be able to invoice the organiser. The funds will include the production costs of the platform deliverables and the costs of the exhibition and printed materials, as well as costs related to work, promotion, and full implementation of the project.

The Biennial of Design will not reimburse travel costs or provide basic accommodation. Participants of the selected teams are required to handle any other arrangements than those provided by the biennial at their own expense and within their own organisation.

Notification of the selection

All applicants will be informed in writing of their selection at the end of the procedure (until 13 March). The selection decision is final.

Implementation

Proposers of a selected project are required to implement it in cooperation with the CzK and BIO teams, who will certify the stages of development and implementation of the project. The detailed roles, rights and responsibilities will be defined in an agreement to be drawn up within one month of the announcement of the selected group, depending on the project selected.

Language

The official languages of the Open Call for Participation for the selection of the production platforms are English and Slovene. All printed and digital material (catalogue, leaflets, accompanying texts at the exhibition) must be in Slovene and English. Due to the international jury, the applications should be submitted in English.

FAQ

To view frequently asked questions, click here.

The project is part of the Center for Creativity program, which is co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Slovenia.

7 March 2024

We are delighted to announce the successful conclusion of the Open Call for participation in the BIO28 Produciton Platform. The Double Agent Production Platform ensures that BIO is a living design organism, responding to the needs of society and the design field. This year, we will develop projects that strive to intertwine various media and disciplines, such as design, crafts, applied arts, and film, into processes and results contributing to the theme and offering a fresh perspective on design. 

More than 80 creative individuals applied to the Open Call Double Agent – Do You Speak Flower? We are particularly pleased to have received applications from collectives in various countries, including Austria, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. This affirms international interest and the importance of the biennial while adding an interesting diversity of creative approaches. The evaluation process for the selection of production groups will be led by BIO28 curator Alexandra Midal in collaboration with mentors and the advisory board. From timely and complete submissions, the jury will select teams for the BIO28 Production Platforms in a two-stage process. The first stage will involve a review of submitted proposals and a shortlist, followed by interviews with applicants selected in the first stage and the final project selection. The selection process and online meetings with participants will take place between March 12 and 15, 2024. Emphasis in the selection will be on originality and topicality of the application, clarity and comprehensiveness of the application, as well as their relevance to the theme of the chosen production platform.

Next on our agenda is the BIO28 Kick-off event, scheduled for March 25. We invite everyone to continue following the developments, tracking progress, and exploring the biennial theme until the official opening in November 2024. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who submitted applications, shared the news about the Double Agent Open Call, and responded in any way. 

We particularly value the responses and coverage from the media, other creative platforms and institutions.

Together, we are building a creative community and eagerly anticipate the next steps on the path to BIO28!