The Inaugural London Design Biennale takes over Somerset House in September, presenting internationally curated contributions by top designers and teams from 37 countries. Modeled after the Architecture and Art Biennales in Venice, the event has a range of contemporary perspectives, from an immersive “Wish Machine” by Turkish duo Autoban to a first-aid distribution system “Aid-Drop” for disaster areas by Israeli designer Yaniv Kadosh – an international panorama of perspectives on design and its many aspects.With its title “Utopia by Design” the Biennale references the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s novel “Utopia,” which lay the foundation for an entire genre, and is a special focus theme in the Somerset House’s programming this year.BLOUIN ARTINFO caught up with the Biennale’s director Christopher Turner to talk about the international scope, the concept of utopia today, and the challenges of organizing the entire event from scratch in only 12 months.You’ve chosen “Utopias by Design” as the title for the inaugural London Design Biennale. Could you explain?Obviously it is the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s “Utopia,” so we thought that was a good opportunity to look at how countries might respond to this provocation of imagining a better world.Why is that a provocation?Because utopia is a quite contentious issue. Modernist utopias have been ridiculed for a long time. Everyone knows that utopia always tilts into dystopia after a while and that there’s always something totalitarian about a utopia, because one person’s utopia is another person’s nightmare. We obviously didn’t invite countries to submit large-scale social blueprints as in the traditional modernist utopias, but to look at small instances or even big ideas about how design might serve in some way to improve some problem. And we imagined countries looking at large issues and suggesting small improvements; also looking at the future, not only inspiring futures, but also cautionary futures.Dystopias are a lot more popular today than utopias. In cinema, we’re awash with dystopias. However, in the 1950s, Ernst Bloch spoke of the “Principle of Hope,” wondering whether something could be salvaged from the utopian ideal, the spirit of optimism, which I think most designers have. So it was a good way to mine that interest.Given this dystopian paradigm, did you have to defend the choice of theme when organizing the Biennale or did people have positive reactions right away?I think a lot of people get it. Some countries have chosen very conceptual responses, looking at how utopia is a subjective thing. Konstantin Grcic from Germany has created a piece about the psychological roots of utopia. Mischer’Traxler from Austria have made a light installation that is in perfect balance before the audience approaches, but starts to rock off-kilter [when people interfere], to show that the utopian ideal can’t really accommodate real people. And some countries look at big issues. For example, Australia looked at the problem of plastic waste in the ocean and what design might do to help.Water also seems to play an important role in the program.Yes, water is a big theme. The Saudi Arabian contribution is looking at desalination plants. Water is a free resource in Saudi Arabia. They are questioning whether it should have more of a value. The Nigerian contribution is looking at gas flaring and byproducts of oil collection and the devastation it has caused in the Niger Delta.What we wanted to do with the theme is to take it away from tables and chairs. People often think of design as just decoration; something that is added in the end as part of the super structure. We wanted to have a very broad vision of design to show how design is integral to so many disciplines, from engineering to fashion to automobile design.Why is it that the public perception of design seems to focus on the decorative, do you think? Because of marketing? Or does the industry need to reposition itself?The main reason for that is probably a marketing thing. It’s hard to sell intangible ideas and obviously people want to sell products. So a lot of the design discourse focuses around new products and their improvements of old products. Alongside journalism, it’s all about manufacturing desire. But I think biennales and festivals offer a moment of pause, where people can reflect in a more considered way on a wider realm of design, also its ability to embrace many disciplines and to foster interdisciplinary conversations, to be slightly freer of market forces.The London Design Biennale complements the London Design Festival. Was this intended from the start?September is the time when the international design community is in London, but the opportunity came up at Somerset House because London Fashion Week moved out; so they had a month in their program that was available. We pitched them the idea of the Biennale as a way of filling that void. In a way September was determined for us. I think it’s a great help being part of this amazing autumn season in London. You don’t only have the London Design Festival, which brings in half a million people from around the world in a city-wide celebration of design; you also have London Fashion Week, the London Film Festival, Frieze – there’s a rich cultural offering in the autumn, which we are pleased the Biennale will be a part of and hopefully also a major player and institution in the future.You mentioned design’s capacity to embrace different disciplines before. How important is interdisciplinary collaboration? Do we a need a new practice there, especially for tackling problems on a global scale?I actually think design is incredibly interdisciplinary already. Design is a discipline that requires collaboration. It is always collaborating with architects, engineers, artists, so there’s a rich field to draw on. And certainly at the Biennale we have artists, scientists, engineers, architects, product designers, and fashion designers. We’ll also be having a talks program for the full duration of the Biennale with three talks a day. We are going to try to encourage inter-country and also interdisciplinary debates in that forum.The London Design Biennale is modeled after the Art and Architecture Biennales in Venice. Why?A lot of Design Biennales invite a curator to cherry-pick the best design from around the world. They choose a theme, go find their favorite designers and designs and bring them together in one place. With the Venetian model, you relinquish curatorial control a little; you’re not quite sure what you’re going to get. We invited all embassies to appoint administrative bodies which would choose a designer and the curation for their entry. And we are working with some of the best institutions in the world: the V&A is organizing the UK installation with Barber & Osgerby; the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is behind the US entry; the MAK Vienna is behind Austria’s, there’s the Moscow Design Museum, the Japan Foundation — we’re really working with the top institutions, and they’ve submitted ideas. Obviously there’s a large element of co-curation to make sure they work within the conversation we’re having at the Biennale. We want everyone to be on theme, so there is an inter-country conversation.Venice has biennales for art and architecture, but not for design, because Milan is the design capital of Italy and would never allow it. So there was an opportunity there. I think we’re the only design biennale in a major capital city right now. At least I can’t think of any others.How much of a challenge was the administrative part of organizing an event with such a large scope?The Biennale has a very small dedicated team that has made it relatively smooth, but of course we’ve only had a year to set up this Biennale. We started last September, and it has been a feat of magic to get this far. We had to invent the rules, invite an international advisory group, and establish relationships from scratch with all these countries. In the first year, we expected 20 countries, but we have been overwhelmed by the response. We are now going to have 37 countries at the Biennale and we had to turn a few down as well. In 2018, I think, we’ll grow and be even bigger.Did you have to do a lot of convincing and explaining in the process?I thought I’d have to travel the world in the beginning but I didn’t. Instead, I travelled around embassies in London, talking to ambassadors and cultural attaches and persuading them of the importance of this biennale. The New York Times once called London the “World Design Capital.” It’s famous for its design, and the London Design Festival has established a lot of prestige around design that a lot of these embassies are already involved in and many countries want to have this opportunity to show how forward thinking they are in design and also the socio-economic importance they attribute to it.What is the presentation going to look like?We have countries in the courtyard, on the river terrace, in rooms, in suites of rooms, in the large gallery spaces, in the mezzanine. Somerset House is this beautiful neo-classical building, probably the closest London gets to Venice, and we have this amazing opportunity to occupy the entire campus. It’s a huge site, also very hard to navigate, so we are working with our designers Pentagram to come up with a map to try to make the visitor flow as smooth as possible. It is an enormous site. But I couldn’t think of anywhere better.And what will the London Design Biennale achieve — in your utopia?I hope that the Biennale will send out an image of design that is very broad; that shows that design is not frivolous, but can tackle important issues head on and contribute to them. Also, how design in its way can make a positive social difference.“The London Design Biennale 2016, in partnership with Jaguar, runs from September 7 through September 27, 2016 at Somerset House, London (prices £15 and £10). Click here for more information.Take a photo tour in our slide show.
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