Curated by Jan Boelen, BIO 50 – 24th Biennial of Design Ljubljana, Slovenia (18 September–7 December 2014) is a transformative effort that seeks to strengthen local and international design networks.
BIO 50 – 24th Biennial of Design Ljubljana, Slovenia, was transformed from a traditional exhibition of industrial design products into a testing ground for how design can function as a tool for understanding everyday life. The biennial also became a reflection on future design practices and the increasing complexity of the contexts of the design profession.
Over 600 designers, artists and other creatives responded to an international call under the theme ‘Designing Everyday Life’. Out of the applicants, 120 were chosen to participate in projects and workshops and to work with mentors such as Dutch designers Aldo Bakker and Rianne Makkink, Slovenian architect and urbanist Marko Peterlin, and German designer and artist Judith Seng. The groups were given loose everyday topics to work on: water, food, affordable living or tourism, and then were left to work on the topics for six months.
The exhibited projects presented a variety of new approaches and aspects of challenges of everyday life, but the biggest value of the projects lies in the learning processes and the continuation of collaborations.
→ BIO – Biennial of Design Ljubljana