Margriet Vollenberg and Margo Koning, owners of Organisation in Design, curated BIO.23, the 23rd installment of Biennial of Design in Ljublijana, Slovenia, which opened to the public this month.
According to the duo, the focus for BIO.23 is to present what is happening in the international contemporary design world. The aim is to present the versatility of design and what contemporary designers are capable of.
The works displayed in BIO.23’s exhibition entitled “Design Relations” were selected from more than 500 applications from 38 countries around the world.
“Not only does this exhibition expose the new and revolutionary ideas of contemporary design, but we also hope that it opens up new perspectives and critical discussions about what contemporary design embodies at this very moment: What is design today and what is design about?” said Vollenberg & Koning.
The winners of the annual Design Exhibition Biennial Awards were chosen from more than 100 works by a jury consisting of: Giulio Cappellini, Sven Jonke, Sophie Lovell, Jimmy MacDonald and Vasa J. Perović.
The Sea Chair designed by Studio Swine and Kieren Jones with co-authors Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves was the winner this year. The project was rewarded twice and both won the BIO Gold Medal, the highest ranked award, as well as the BIO Green Award for environmentally friendly projects.
The jury also awarded three special Jury Awards this year “that represent the real and very valuable role of the designer as a researcher, arriving at conceptual and even political proposals rather than straightforward formal or commercial solutions,” said the jury report.
The winners of the Jury Awards were: Balkan type system by designers Nikola Durek and Marija Juza, Trail$ smart banknote system by Nitipak Samsen and DNA Hacking Yoghurt by Tuur van Balen.
The exhibition design housing the winning installations was created by designer Joost van Bleiswijk and will be on view until Nov. 11 in the Museum of Architecture and Design. For a complete overview of the award winners click here.
