BIO 23rd Design Biennale | Ljubljana | call for entries

BIO 23, the Biennial of Design is an international design exhibition that presents current trends in contemporary design. The exhibited works are eligible to receive the Biennial’s awards for the best designs of the past two years.

With a tradition of 48 years, BIO is one of the world’s oldest international design events. The Organiser of the Biennial, the Museum of Architecture and Design, is currently seeking submissions for the 23rd Biennial of Design. The curators have decided on the theme for BIO 23, namely, “Design Relations”, and they will select the works to be exhibited, following criteria of functionality, sustainability, commercial viability, cultural significance, social importance, the concept of the work, the use of materials, the production process, and aesthetics.

The Theme of BIO 23 - Design Relations
How are designers and the works they create influenced by modern technologies, digitalisation and globalisation? And how is design evolving? Contemporary designers seem to embrace the resourcefulness of nature and its processes, while they also display an amazing capability to use technology. Their explorations not only lead them to commercial products but also help them to better address cultural, social and emotional questions.
BIO 23 will show fresh new ideas and explore how design relates to the social, the sustainable, and the cultural, while displaying crossovers between culture and commerce, crafts and industry.

Conditions for Participation
Applicants may be designers, commissioners, manufacturers, academic tutors, or students, who are involved in the creation of the submitted work, as well as BIO’s partner organisations, provided they do so with the consent of the author of the work or concept. To be eligible for submission, finished works must not have been in production or, for the submission of design concepts, must not have been conceived, before 1 January 2010.

Eligible disciplines from which works may be submitted are: product design, industrial design, environmental design, communications design, transport design, spatial design, social design, experimental design, and others. Finished design works or design concepts may be submitted from these fields.

Read Rules for Participation

Entry Procedure

Entries for BIO 23 will be accepted between 6 February and 30 March 2012.

Entries may be submitted via the BIO website, with the entry fee paid via the website at the same time. This method is simple, fast and reliable.

Only one work may be submitted per entry form except when submitting a series of items, in which case this must be clearly stated in the entry form.

The Museum of Architecture and Design must receive all completed entry documentation, as well as the entry fee payment, by 30 March 2012, the deadline for entries.

Required Documentation for Entries

A completed entry form. (Please note that there are separate entry forms for finished works/products and design concepts/prototypes.)

Three digital photographs with a resolution suitable for catalogue publication (JPG format, with the longer side measuring at least 23 cm, resolution 300 dpi at 1 : 1 size).

If considered necessary for the presentation of the work, the following may be included: scanned sketches of the work, digital photographs of the process of the making of the work, digital photographs of the work in use. (Please note that it is not possible to send more than five images of this kind.)

A presentation text (of no more than 500 characters) in English. The text should describe the characteristic features and unique aspects of the work as well as its advantages in comparison with other works of a similar nature.

Please note: All entry documentation must be in English.

Entry Fee
The entry fee is €80. Applicants who have received previous BIO awards are entitled to a 50 percent discount on the entry. The entry fee for students is €20.

The entry fee may be paid in either of the following ways:

Via the website: Upon payment on the website (www.bio.si), applicants will receive a confirmation notice by e-mail and an official invoice by post. Online payment is fast, secure, and reliable.

Via bank transfer: When paying through a bank transfer, the following information must be included:

For payments from within Slovenia:
Recipient: Muzej za arhitekturo in oblikovanje
Pot na Fužine 2
SI-1000 Ljubljana
TR: 01100-6000034749

For payments from outside Slovenia:
Recipient: Museum of Architecture and Design
Pot na Fužine 2
SI-1000 Ljubljana
BIC/SWIFT code: BSLJSI2X
IBAN code: SI5601100-6000034749

Applicants eligible for the discount (previous BIO award recipients) who are paying their entry fee via bank transfer should include the word “discount” on the “purpose of payment” line on the payment order.
The entry fee is non-commercial and is intended to cover the administrative costs involved in handling the entry applications.

Selection of BIO 23 Works for the Exhibition
The selection of works for the exhibition will be made by the curators Margriet Vollenberg and Margo Konings, from the studio Organisation in Design. The curators will consider all entries that are correctly filled out and that arrive at the Museum of Architecture and Design by the stated deadline.
The selection results are final and may not be disputed. The selection of works for BIO 23 is fully entrusted to the curators. The Organiser of the Biennial is under no obligation to provide any explanation about the curators’ decisions.
The curators have the right to exclude from the exhibition any work that does not correspond to the entry materials that served as the basis for their decision to include the work in the exhibition.

Applicants will be notified by mail about the selection and all subsequent procedures connected with exhibiting in the Biennial. The selection of works for the exhibition will be announced by the end of May 2012.

Jury
An international jury will select the award-winning works from among those that are exhibited. The members of the jury are Giulio Cappellini, Sven Jonke, Sophie Lovell, Jimmy MacDonald, and Vasa J. Perović. The jury will convene in Ljubljana on 24–25 September 2012.

Awards
BIO Gold Medals
BIO Honourable Mentions
BIO Green Award
Award for a Student Work

The winner of the BIO Gold Medal will receive a monetary prize in the amount of €5,000.

Catalogue
The BIO 23 exhibition catalogue will present information about the design works, the designers, the commissioners, and the manufacturers. The catalogue will be published in Slovene and English. The price of the BIO 23 catalogue will be €20.
Bio 23 applicants are entitled to a free copy of the catalogue.
The catalogue will also include an advertising section. The rates for advertising in the catalogue are as follows: full-page (1/1) – €1,000; half-page (1/2) – €600. VAT is not included in these prices.

The Delivery of Design Works
The method of delivering the design works is left up to the exhibitors, but the works must arrive at the address of the Museum of Architecture and Design between 3 September and 7 September 2012. For works sent from countries outside the European Union we recommend using an ATA carnet.

The transport costs in both directions, as well as packaging and transport insurance, are to be covered by the exhibitor. Any special exhibition expenses (e.g. internal transport for heavier item) will be charged to the exhibitor separately. Exhibitors must inform the Organiser of any special installation requests by 31 August 2012.

Items that, in the Organiser’s opinion, cannot be exhibited because of their size or for any other reason, may be presented in a different manner.For the exhibition, design concepts must be realised as prototypes or three-dimensional models.

By applying for the Biennial, applicants commit themselves to deliver the entered work by 7 September 2012. Should they fail to do this, they are obliged to pay the costs of a half-page advertisement, as the inclusion of their work in the catalogue will be regarded as an advertisement.

The Return of Design Works
Exhibitors may pick up their works after the close of the exhibition, between 14 and 18 November 2012. Any works remaining on the exhibition site after the pick-up period will become the property of the Organiser.

Time and Location of the Exhibition
27 September–11 November 2012
Museum of Architecture and Design
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Period for Entry Submissions
6 February–30 March 2012

Address
Museum of Architecture and Design
Pot na Fužine 2
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

All questions and comments should be directed to the Organiser by e-mail (bio@mao.si) or telephone (+386 1 548 42 83, +386 31 723 441); office hours are: Mon., Wed., Fri., 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

Source: BIO 23