Following an international open call that received submissions from 593 applicants from a record number of 56 countries, curator Jan Boelen, co-curators Maja Vardjan and Cvetka Požar, and the mentors of each of the BIO 50 themes have selected the participants for the Biennial of the Design in Ljubljana. More than 100 multidisciplinary participants from 20 countries will participate in BIO 50, engaging in eleven themes: 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. For each team, international and Slovene mentors will elaborate a project brief, guiding and overseeing a collaborative process over the course of six months. Team members with their diverse experiences, knowledge and motivation will develop one or more projects to present at the Biennial.

An introductory event at Ljubljana’s Museum of Architecture and Design will formally kick-off the teamwork for BIO 50 on 13 and 14 February 2014. The first day of the program will see the curatorial team expand on the Biennial, its program and objectives, followed by lectures on the Tricks, Tools and Traps of Collaboration by designer Thomas Lommée and researcher Liesbeth Huybrechts. The lectures will be followed by presentations by each of the team mentors. The second day of the program will see the formal beginning of the work process, which will from then onwards be recorded and documented on the BIO 50 website.

From 18 September to 7 December 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, BIO 50 will present the outcomes of each team’s work in an exhibition, and projects will be published in an accompanying catalogue. An international jury comprising industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, design critic Alice Rawsthorn and designer and professor Saša J. Mächtig will grant an Award for Best Collaboration.

On the year of its 50th anniversary, the 24th Biennial of Design advances into an experimental, collaborative territory, building on the event’s tradition and history. The main show will be accompanied by an exhibition on the Biennial’s fifty years of history, shedding light on the transformation and shifts in the discipline of design, our society, and ultimately everyday life. Alongside these visions of the future and reflections on the past, a lively program of events, exhibits and lectures will animate the city of Ljubljana for the duration of the Biennial.

The Programme
Thursday, 13 February 2014
08.30 Check-in
09.00 Welcome by Matevž Čelik, MAO
Welcome by Lilijana Madjar, RRA LUR
Welcome by Ivan Stanič, representative of the City of Ljubljana
09.10 Introduction by Jan Boelen
09.20 Introduction on the history of BIO by Cvetka Požar
09.25 Tricks, Tools and Traps of Collaboration, part 1
OpenStructures by Thomas Lommée
10.05 Coffee Break
10.30 Tricks, Tools and Traps of Collaboration, part 2
Participation is Risky: Approaches to Joint Creative Processes by Liesbeth Huybrecht
11.10 Discussion
11.30 Lunch
12.30 A Roadmap to a New Biennial of Design: 3, 2, 1 … Test by Jan Boelen
13.00 Introduction of mentors: Aldo Bakker, Tulga Beyerle, Tadej Glažar, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič, Marko Fatur, Evan Frenkel, Tina Hočevar, Jesse Howard, Jurij Krpan, Rianne Makkink, Eugenia Morpurgo, Lucas Mullié and Digna Kosse, William Myers, Marko Peterlin, ProstoRož, Judith Seng, Tilen Sepič, Gaspard Tiné-Berès and Tristan Kopp, Tomos Research and Development team and Miha Turšič Moderated by Jan Boelen and Maja Vardjan
14.00 BIO 50 Organogram by Maja Šuštaršič
14.15 Coffee Break
14.30 Field Trips
20.00 Dinner and Party

Lecturers
Following his studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven, Les Ateliers Paris and the Institute without Boundaries Toronto, Thomas Lommée (1979) has participated in a series of multidisciplinary design research groups in Europe and overseas. In 2007, he established “Intrastructures“, a pragmatic, utopian design-studio that emphasizes on the physical, digital and social context of product-design. He is also the initiator of the OpenStructures project, a hands-on design experiment that explores the possibility of a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid. Next to his activities as designer / design researcher Lommée has been teaching at the ‘Social Design’ research program at Design Academy Eindhoven’s Master course and is the co-founder and mentor of the ‘ENSCImatique’ at the ENSCI in Paris. He lives and works in Brussels.

Liesbeth Huybrechts (1979) completed a PhD about the relation between digital media, art, design and participation. She is head of research of the research unit Inter-actions, researcher and lecturer in higher art education in the Media, Arts and Design Faculty in Genk, LUCA School of Arts/KULeuven. In this context, she is associated with the research group Social Spaces, exploring the social meanings, uses and applications of design and art. She also is involved in research and mentoring students in the context of Cultural Studies KULeuven and Design Academy of Eindhoven.

Opening

 Start: 8.30

Admission

free

Info

www.bio.si
bio@mao.si
00386 1 5484 283