To represent Croatia at the London Design Biennale, which is being held for the first time this year, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian Designers Association (HDD) selected a project whose curatorial concept was created by Maša Milovac and a team of associates called the Utopian Collective.

 

This is the first edition of a manifestation that has the ambition of becoming the most representative European exhibition, and not fair, event in the field of design. The London Design Biennale, in partnership with Jaguar, will be held at the Somerset House, from 7th to 27th September 2016, and it will include representatives from 37 countries. The theme of the first biennale is linked to the anniversary of the first edition of the book Utopia by Thomas More (1516), so the organizers invited the participants to re-examine, under the common title of Utopia by Design and through contemporary design approaches, the topicality of the utopian idea and to address one of the fundamental issues of humanity today. The Biennale will occupy the entirety of Somerset House, including the famous Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court. Situated on the banks of the River Thames in the heart of London, the former royal palace is a world famous cultural centre and is one of London’s most visited attractions with more than 3.2 million visitors in 2015. The curated, threeweek long Biennale is an independent event which will overlap the London Design Festival, complementing its citywide programme of commissions and partner events utopian collective croatia london design biennale 2016 press release september 2016 2 every two years.

 

The curatorial concept Utopia by Design by Maša Milovac and her team of associates called the Utopian Collective, selected to represent Croatia at the London Design Biennale, is based on moving away from the expected and familiar. Considering a somewhat outdated format of representation of design within biennial showings that practice selecting some of the best designs

with a national tint and keeping in mind the given theme, the Utopian Collective was conceived as a non-conventional

experimental process with the goal of exploring work of a collective and work in a collective, i.e. the status of what is common, synergic and collaborative, as one of the possible formats of the design practice. This departure stands in contrast to the individualistic practice as an imperative of competitiveness and antagonisation in the consumer society and the neoliberal market

environment. The Utopian Collective team of designers, comprised of Maja Čule, Hrvoje Hiršl, Maja Kolar, Maša Poljanec, Oleg Šuran, Mauro Massarotto, Mauricio Ferlin and Hrvoje Živčić, was assembled for the purposes of this presentation which makes this their first joint collaboration.

 

In the exhibition space we witness several different layers of reading that are the direct consequence of the development phases of the work process. The first element, basic in character, represents common ground, shaped as a proto-idea of the world, a two-dimensional globe, the unifying idea of a circle. The second layer consists of three-dimensional objects, keepers of emptiness, certain vessels originating from the development process of the collective’s expression language. The third element of the whole is the sound that gives this environment a time dimension and through the spoken word coveys key elements of synergy, but also the specificities of the individuals’ attitudes, a narrative resulting from the dialogue between designers, the members of the Utopian Collective.