Where: MAO, Ljubljana
When: 21st November 2024 – 6th April 2025
Sito: 28.bio.si
The Museum of Architecture and Design and the CzK Center for Creativity present the 28th edition of BIO Ljubljana, Europe’s longest-running design biennial, celebrating 60 years since its first exhibition.
An Exploration of Design, Cinema, and Feminism
This year’s edition, curated by Alexandra Midal with the assistance of Emma Pflieger, is titled Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? and offers a fascinating exploration of the relationship between art, design, and the secret language of flowers—floriography.
The main exhibition, Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower?, transcends traditional exhibition boundaries to offer a multifaceted experience that weaves together past and present through design, art, and cinema.
Flirting with popular culture, the exhibition examines how the language of flowers has conveyed political and social meanings, transforming from a romantic symbol into a powerful tool of resistance.
Historical examples such as Allen Ginsberg’s Flower Power movement or the Carnation Revolution in Portugal demonstrate the subversive potential of these seemingly innocent symbols.
The exhibition invites visitors to decode hidden messages in floriography, uncovering feminist resistance strategies that use the beauty and apparent fragility of flowers to combat oppression. This journey of discovery culminates in a final installation that reveals how camouflage and aesthetic manipulation remain crucial tools in the contemporary landscape.
The Curators
Alexandra Midal, the curator, is a prominent figure in the world of art and design, with extensive academic and professional experience. A professor at HEAD in Geneva and director of the Department of Critical Thinking at Ensci-Les Ateliers in Paris, Midal has curated numerous international exhibitions and published pioneering books on design, including The Murder Factory and Design by Accident. For a New History of Design.
Supporting her is Emma Pflieger, a French designer and co-founder of the innovative Studio Pflieger-Foeglé, known for its interdisciplinary and research-driven approach.
BIO Ljubljana is also an experimental laboratory that challenges the boundaries of design to address contemporary needs. Organized by the MAO in collaboration with CzK, the biennial is dedicated to developing alternatives to established systems, using design as a tool to rethink society and its production systems.
The MAO, founded in 1972, is one of the oldest architecture and design museums in Europe and serves as a key institution for promoting Slovenia’s cultural heritage. Similarly, the CzK supports the growth of the national creative sector, strengthening its social and economic impact.
In addition to the exhibition, BIO28 offers a wide range of events, including workshops, conferences, and city-wide activities in Ljubljana. Highlights will take place at the ISIS Gallery and the Mala Galerija of the Bank of Slovenia, symbolic venues for this design celebration.
BIO28 will be open from November 21, 2024, to April 6, 2025, in Ljubljana. For more details, visit the official website: 28.bio.si.
