After Utopia06/17
After Utopia is one of the episodes of 'Faraway, So Close'- the 25th Biennial of Design in Ljubljana. It takes place in the small former mining town of Trbovlje, in Slovenia. The town and its people initially look indifferent, quiet, sleepy, grey. But its interiors hide secret, magical worlds; many people take-on fantastic lives and create imaginative realities, often hidden inside the walls of a house. Such cases include an astronaut, a Japanese scientist- artist, a robot, a dance group called ‘a miner’, youngsters working with NASA, a world renowned ski-uniform designer, someone building airplanes, a world famous art collective and industrial rock band, a puppet theater, lace-makers, a creative collaborations platform, an urban games group, extreme sports athletes, marathons in the mines, a radio transmitter, a rotating stage, Europe’s tallest chimney, various gigantic machines. After Utopia exposes these worlds beings concealed in Trbovlje. Instead of proposing a new, ideal vision for the future, it observes reality and reveals the moments where it has already transformed into something else by ordinary people and their dreams. After Utopia proposes fantasy, creative obsession and fearless attitude as a driving force for the future. It aims to trigger may more stories to happen or be revealed. Inside the national Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, a curtain forms a circular room to exhibit After Utopia. The room is a circle like the mines, the chimney, the moon. A series of photographic portraits of the protagonists are exhibited in the room. These pictures expose the creatures in their physical environment revealing similarities in the way they interact with the town.
status: realized, part of Faraway, So Close |
