 Nov 21 2024 - Apr 6 2025

 Ljubljana

The 28th Biennial of Design (BIO28), Europe's longest-standing design biennial, is running from 21 November to 6 April 2025 at the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana.

The biennial is curated by Alexandra Midal, 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.

With the theme Double Agent - Do You Speak Flower? she refers to hidden meanings of everyday objects and the idea of a flower as a metaphor or stereotype of woman present in art, architecture, design, literature and film.

"Designers are taught to convey hidden meanings through the most mundane objects. Design is linked to intelligence, to cunning. Every object we use has a subtext. Although design is often associated with production, even social status, it is in fact a very political matter. BIO28 will therefore deal more with the socio-political meaning of design than with the question of industrial production and its results," Midal told the Slovenian Press Agency in an interview.

In cooperation with French designer Emma Pflieger, she picked mentors, such as Matali Crasset, Dimitri Zephir and Florian Dach, who in turn selected the participating designers.

Dach&Zephir have mentored a platform that will focus on the erased, while a project mentored by the Studio Yukiko will involve posters in public spaces.

Apart from the Museum of Architecture and Design, the biennial will also be held at at Isis Gallery and the Small Gallery of Bank of Slovenia.

The latter will host a joint project of students from the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO) and from the HEAD University of Art and Design in Geneva.

Among other things, the main exhibition will focus on early cinema, French cineaste Alice Guy. There will be artworks, furniture - some chairs, also vases, but very specific ones.

"The exhibition will be about the clichés associated with flowers, which represent the commodification of women into an idealised model of beauty. It will be conceived in a way that encourages the visitor to explore. Like a private detective, they will go hunting for answers, which they will only find at the very end," Midal said ahead of the biennial, promising the visitors will have fun.