– a place to be and experience, side by side –
Side by side, Design Biennale Zürich, 2025.
Van mijn hotel naar het centrum lopend,
stuitte ik op een aankondiging van de Design Biennale Zürich.
Ik ging uit van strak vormgegeven horloges, lampen of meubels.
Maar de objecten bleken minder om hun buitenkant te gaan
dan ik had verwacht.
Misschien was het de tuin zelf — de Alter Botanischer Garten —
die het geheel meer diepte gaf.
Iets dat op een ondiep zwembad leek trok direct mijn aandacht.
En hoe verder ik de tuin in ging, hoe boeiender het werd
Pas later, bij een gebouw in de tuin, bladerend door enkele folders,
zag ik hoe deze editie heette:
Side by side.
Grappig genoeg kreeg die titel voor mij nog een tweede betekenis.
Als een persoonlijke variant op ‘naast elkaar’.
’s Ochtends de biennale, ’s middags In Fraunhand.
Twee tentoonstellingen naast elkaar.
Vergankelijke Omheiningen, Eeuwigdurende Gemeenschappelijke Ruimtes
Side by side, Alter Botanischer Garten, Lara Mehling & Nicole de Lalouvière, Ephemeral Enclosures Perennial Commons.
The mobile, lightweight structure offers a new interpretation of the sarāparda. The Persian term combines saray (palace) and parda (curtain) and refers to a relic of Central Asian nomadic pastoralism. To define the boundaries of a temporary camp, a portion of a blooming meadow was temporarily enclosed. Through this ephemeral enclosure, the vital grazing land was transformed into a ceremonial space —an act that challenges the conventional definition of a garden as an artifact of sedentary life and invites a new understanding of contemporary commons in the landscape.
Wildflower meadows have long drawn nomadic peoples to the mountain steppes of Western and Central Asia. These lands belonged to no one but those who temporarily inhabited them during seasonal migrations. Among the first spring vegetation were fire-red wild tulips. The beauty of these red-flowering fields was widely celebrated, their imagery woven into the art and iconography of tribal and courtly cultures —particularly in textiles crafted by women. The installation in the Old Botanical Garden at the University of Zurich consists of a multi-part screen whose segments form a visual essay on the journey of the red flowers from Central Asia westward. Each panel traces a fragment of archived textile. The designs have been reinterpreted in a style reminiscent of European chintz fabrics, also known as Indiennes. Through the reclamation of this medium, the textile panels aim to honor the heritage of the red flowers.
Online worden daarom twaalf textielstukken genoemd
waarin de bloemmotieven een rol spelen.
Met name vloerkleden, plus een enkel kussenovertrek.
Ze zijn oorspronkelijk gemaakt in Siberië, Herat, Iran,
het Ottomaanse Rijk en Italië.
De makers in Zwitserland, Lara Mehling & Nicole de Lalouvière,
zien zichzelf in de eerste plaats als landschapsarchitecten.
Tales & Tails: Verhalen met huid en haar
Annina Arter, Tales & Tails
This project presents a series of textile images that engage with entries from Conrad Gessner’s Historiae Animalium, also known as the “Thierbuch”– one of the earliest encyclopedias of the animal world,published in the 16th century. In this work, Gessner systematically compiled all available knowledge from ancient, medieval, and contemporary sources. Alongside real animals, he also documented mythical creatures such as the unicorn or basilisk. The depiction of these hybrid beings reveals how, in the 16th century, the boundaries between observation, myth, and inherited narrative, were still fluid —between the visible and the told, between documented fact and imagination.
“Tales & Tails” reflects on this theme through a contemporary, textile interpretation. Selected original illustrations from a hand-colored version of the Thierbuch are highlighted and embedded in narrative compositions. The series positions itself as an artistic exploration of collecting as a cultural practice —both historical and contemporary. The textile works explore the influence of social imagination, visual interpretation, and collective labor on how we perceive nature. The materials themselves follow the logic of collecting: fabrics, fragments, and materials from diverse sources come together in collage-like compositions with a quilt-like aesthetic, referencing various forms of collecting, ordering, and interpreting.The Thierbuch used as a source was kindly provided by the University of Amsterdam: Gessner-Platter albums, Allard Pierson, University of Amsterdam, Library of the Remonstrant community of Amsterdam, Hs. III C 22–23.
Annina Arter is textielontwerpster.
De werken, geplaatst langs een smal pad tussen bomen en struiken,
krijgen daardoor een onverwachte charme.
Vloeibare klei
Maria Smigielska en Ana Ascic, Liquid Clay Forms in Flux.
“Liquid Clay: Forms in Flux” is a site-specific installation in the round pond of Zurich’s Old Botanical Garden. Drawing from the forms of aquatic plants —adapted to channel and collect water —the work translates these logics into a sculptural system of 3D-printed clay funnels. Stacked in shifting rhythms, the modular elements evoke patterns of growth, erosion, and riverine flow. The project highlights clay’s potential as a sustainable, locally sourced material, reinterpreted through advanced digital fabrication.
Each funnel element is printed with precision yet retains the tactile character of layered clay, producing a rhythm that feels simultaneously natural and crafted. Mist, reflections, and shifting daylight animate the work, transforming it throughout the day and offering a sensory experience of atmosphere and space. Rather than inviting interaction, the piece functions as a sculptural intervention that amplifies the garden’s qualities of pause, contemplation, and connection. “Liquid Clay: Forms in Flux” is a gentle encounter between natural processes and digital craftsmanship, where visitors are invited to reflect on the shared language of water, material, and form.
Ana Ascic en Maria Smigielska zijn architecten.
Positief zwermen
Ethel Rossetti en Elena Zihlmann, Collective Mind.
How does your presence influence the movement of others? Collective Mind explores the nature of the swarm – as movement, as structure, and as a form of intelligence.
The work investigates the ever-shifting relationship between the individual and the collective, between autonomy and mutual dependence. What invisible forces come into play when many become one? What emerges when control slips away, and complexity arises from repetition and simple rules? These dynamics are staged through artistic means. Human bodies take on fluid formations reminiscent of bird flocks. Photographs reveal ant-like behaviors, repetition, and rhythm. A generative digital swarm simulates the logic of decentralized systems —where movement isn’t imposed but collectively created. In such systems, the individual dissolves into the collective – and yet the collective depends on every single element. There is no leadership, and still, direction emerges. There is no central plan, and yet structure forms. Collective Mind invites viewers into a living, breathing system. A space where identities dissolve, proximity creates meaning, and the choreography of the many becomes a mirror of our shared movement.
Ethel Rossetti en Elena Zihlmann onderzoeken het begrip ‘Zwerm’.
Hun onderzoek vindt plaats via de camera
— via kijken, vastleggen, herhalen.
Het is iets anders dan het gedrag van buitenlandminister Rubio,
die zijn baas blind volgt,
zelfs wanneer hij buitenspel wordt gezet.
Maar ook in een zwerm is weinig ruimte voor individueel denken.
Bij deze fotografen levert het prachtige foto’s op.
Voetbad
A cross-disciplinary spatial-performative installation.
A place to be and experience, side by side.
Valerie Hess en Sibylle Stoeckli, THE POOOL.
The performative and interdisciplinary installation THE POOOL is both space and process. An urban oasis where bodies, ideas, disciplines, generations, and communities converge. All visitors are invited to sit at the edge of the pool, dip their feet in the water, receive a towel, and simply be—alone or SIDE BY SIDE with others. This gesture is simple and universal, rooted in many traditions. Here, everyone is welcome to pause, observe, interact, and reconnect with what matters. The project raises fundamental questions: How can we live side by side? How do we connect with ourselves—and with others? Where do we draw inspiration from? How do we behave alone—and how do we share space at the pool? To explore these questions, designers Sibylle Stoeckli and Valerie Hess are present on site every day. They create spaces, situations, images, and words, engaging in an ongoing, collective design process. Their approach is open, interactive, and participatory. The installation becomes an experiential space where water acts as a medium—between people, nature, and society, between body and mind. THE POOOL evolves into a living stage for coexistence, reflection, and collective action—SIDE BY SIDE in the urban realm. It is a place where creativity, imagination, and discovery take center stage. A place that values process, transition, and transformation. Come by, refresh yourself, and let yourself be inspired.
Terwijl ik op een bank in de vroege zon mijn meegebrachte ontbijt at,
kwam er een groep studenten de biennale bezoeken — een hele klas
Ze kregen, vermoed ik, een rondleiding door de tentoonstelling
in dit kleine maar verrassende stadspark.
Dus terwijl ik de tentoonstelling op mijn eigen tempo bekeek,
kwam ik steeds weer een paar van die studenten tegen.
Het leukste moment speelde zich af bij The Pooool.
Er klonk veel gegiechel — logisch, het is toch wat
om met een groep je schoenen uit te trekken
en samen een voetbad te nemen.
Pop-up- of inloopsculptuur
Kollektive Krönlihalle, Max Biliger.
Used beverage crates form a geometric, temporary sculpture. They shape a bar counter and various seating options – almost like at a spontaneously convened party. With this, the Krönlihalle Collective casts a humorous glance at design. By repurposing crates, they create an accessible installation that invites people to touch and use it. The right-angled figures are a full-scale copy of Max Bill’s sculpture Pavillon, located about 300 meters away on Bahnhofstrasse – SIDE BY SIDE. The abstract color patterns formed by the crates provide another reference to the original artist and his work. In contrast to the monumental granite sculpture, the copy in the Old Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich, built with simple means, appears ephemeral. After ten days it will be dismantled, and the crates will once again serve their original purpose. Despite the simplicity of the reproduction, its underlying idea closely follows that of the original:
«Max Billiger» invites visitors to linger and to social exchange in the open air – just like the Pavillon on the city’s most exclusive shopping mile.Those in the mood for a short walk can head to Bahnhofstrasse to view the original there and discover similarities and differences.
Argusvlinder 