09 / 14 April 2019

Park Hub, Via Garofalo 31, Milan

In occasion of the Milan Design Week 2019, Park Associati hosts in its studio the project INSECURE: Public Space in the Age of Big Data, designed by Žan Kobal and Weixiao Shen and curated by Virginio Briatore. The project aims to challenge the status quo of surveillance systems, by changing the nature of its very core – the surveillance camera.

In occasion of the Milan Design Week 2019, Park Associati hosts in its studio the project INSECURE: Public Space in the Age of Big Data, designed by Žan Kobal and Weixiao Shen and curated by Virginio Briatore. The project aims to challenge the status quo of surveillance systems, by changing the nature of its very core – the surveillance camera.

By subverting the cold, silent and motionless behavior of the camera, the exhibition is intended to enhance critical engagement and start a discussion about the regulations of public space security. The dichotomy between the security purpose of the cameras and the insecurity of their behaviors leads the individual to question on how public spaces are controlled by external authorities rather than their safety condition.

In this instance, the intriguing duo of designers, Žan Kobal and Weixiao Shen, from the Design Academy of Eindhoven have indulged on a vision of an Orwellian future where a digital dictatorship leads to a death of public space, a limitation of individual privacy and a controlled society.

The project gives the opportunity to reflect on how common spaces have increasingly become “privatized” in the name of security. As these “privatized” public spaces proliferate, they also become testing grounds for what is acceptable – and unacceptable – public behavior, a way to more closely surveil domestic population.

A final question arises from the exhibition: what can we do to protect ourselves?

The project is the result of the Design Call launched in October 2018 by Park Associati to open its spaces to new young voices of the design world.

Designers from more than 25 countries all over the world have submitted their applications to gain the chance to display their works at Park Hub, a space dedicated to cultural exploration and research on new forms of design.

Žan Kobal, from Slovenia, and Weixiao Shen, from China, have started their collaboration inside the walls of the Design Academy of Eindhoven. Experimenting with different materials and expressions of art, the two are combining their different backgrounds to reflect on most urgent contemporary issues.

Virginio Briatore is a design philosopher and observer of contemporary style. He writes/wrote for INTERNI, D. La Repubblica delle Donne, Casaamica + Io Donna/Corriere della Sera, Surface + Graphis (NY), Design Week ( UK), DAMn° (Bruxelles), CasaVogue Brasil.