PLAY: The Second edition of the Design Biennale Zurich

Gabriela Chicherio and Andreas Saxer are again pulling the strings as curators for the second edition of the Design Biennale Zurich - this year's new member as guest curator is Maike Thies. In an interview, the three talk about playful, multifaceted and tangible design.

Curated platform for current design issues
The Design Biennale Zurich is a cultural event for current design issues and a curated platform for mediating design. The aim is to make design comprehensible and tangible for a broad audience. Not only design creators and experts are being addressed, but everyone who is interested in design – there are also exciting offerings for children. The focus is on experimental and process-oriented projects in all design sectors such as product design, graphic design, interior design, fashion design, textile design, interaction design, game design and scenography. The Design Biennale Zurich serves as a platform for exceptional projects and aims to encourage collaboration and exchange.

Processes between game and design
The second Design Biennale Zurich aims to bring design to life as a game and method and to show what role design plays in our lives. The focus will be on projects that play with our ingrained patterns of perception and body images, explore the field of the possible in a new way or break with rules and expectations, and virtuously connect screens and physical spaces with the goal of creating social events.

Interview with the curators
The Design Biennale enters its second round. What can we look forward to this year?
AS: We are presenting design from a wide variety of disciplines. We show intersections, differences and similarities from different areas of design with outstanding projects. Selected international works are in dialogue with contemporary Swiss design.

GCH: This year we made the leap across the “Roestigraben" (Switzerland’s French-German cultural boundary) and were able to win the renowned design university ECAL and the French-speaking design magazine Espaces contemporains as partners. We are also launching this year's Design Biennale with a major opening in the Werkstadt Zurich.

The theme PLAY offers a lot of scope - where is your focus?
MT: On playful approaches to design processes, whether they are material and space experiments, mind games and games, research or pure entertainment. The programme features high-calibre design personalities with unconventional, playful approaches to the discipline. This courage to think outside the box is fun, encourages participation and experimentation. We make the subject of play tangible in all its facets.

GCH: We show an exciting selection of the best national and international projects that deal with the subject of games in terms of content or method – across the entire spectrum of design disciplines.

What does the Design Biennale Zurich 2019 offer, in one sentence?
GCH: The Design Biennale Zurich is a unique design event in which all disciplines are in dialogue. This makes it one of the most diverse and surprising design events – even beyond Switzerland's borders.

To what extent does the Design Biennale distinguish itself from other formats such as Design Festival Bern, Design Days, Criterion, Maker Days or Blickfang?
AS: We put experiencing and participating in design processes at the forefront. Our focus is not on selling and consuming products, but on experiencing, exploring and discovering design.

MT: We're not fans of classic trade fair visits where you pay for just looking at them. We address creative people, amateurs, families and the interested public and make design an experience for them.

Guest curator Maike Thies is new on board this year. What role will she play at the Design Biennale Zurich 2019?
GCH: Maike is our expert for game design and interaction design. We can't imagine a better representative for the PLAY theme.

AS: The different perspectives in our team mean that exciting projects from numerous disciplines are confronted with each other. In the future, creative people will work and cooperate more closely across disciplines. We are interested in the intersections and the new fields that are emerging from it.

MT: I am very pleased to bring game and interaction design responding to the theme PLAY into the programme. I find it inspiring to transcend the boundaries of one's own discipline, to present games in their interdisciplinary scope and to make them experienceable as a social event. In Switzerland, games have advanced to become a major part of the cultural economy. To steer the view away from clichéd approaches to games and playful media is a lucrative task.

Gabriela Chicherio (*1980) is a product designer focusing on concepts, exhibitions, furniture and accessories. She develops products for manufacturers such as ligne roset or Stuhl und Tisch Klingnau, produces small series and works as a freelancer. Since autumn 2018 she is also head of the office of the Made in Zürich Initiative.

Andreas Saxer (*1975) designs objects and spaces for companies and cultural institutions. He is a lecturer in object design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and is a member of the board of the Swiss Design Association.

Maike Thies (*1984) is a research assistant at the Zurich University of the Arts for the BA specialisation in Game Design. She organises exhibitions and international conferences. Her research interests include interactive theatre projects, installations (dramaturgy, screenplay, script) and the potential of immersive technologies for art and design.