Biennial of Design BIO28
Double Agent: Do you Speak Flower?

– November 2024

Visual identity, poster series, website

The Slovenian design biennale BIO, one of the world’s oldest, ranks among the most preeminent international design events in Europe.

Political, bold, vibrant, and provocative, Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? examines the figure of floriography, a code hidden within flowers to transmit secret information. The core of this transdisciplinary and multifaceted exhibition scrutinizes the pivotal role of floriography used by women to portray their identities. In that sense, flowers pave the way for antagonistic and alternative interpretations of both the meanings and the context in which they are decrypted.

The exhibition draws on critical theory to define self-identification as an aesthetic and political act that resonates with vanquished, marginalized, forgotten, or invisible minorities. Given that flowers represent both the commodification of women into an idealized beauty paradigm and serve as a feminist, anti-colonial, gender, and queer cryptology, the title Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? reflects this dual perspective. The Biennial displays an ongoing investigation that questions the role of the exhibition in providing answers, and instead wishes to open a series of conversations with designers, artists and the public.

BIO was founded in 1963 and it is organised by the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO).

3D modeling: Jakub Wróblewski

Curator: Alexandra Midal

https://28.bio.si/en

Book "Do you Speak Flower" published by MAO, Ljubljana and Les presses du réel Dijon, France, coming in February 2025.



"THE ROOTS""THE ROOTS"   "THE BLOOM""THE BLOOM"   "THE COMPOST""THE COMPOST"