Acting in various dispersed territories across Slovenia, Faraway, So Close seeks out “low-intensity” places in which to test the possibility of changing our notions of economic progress and which could work toward and in the name of such fundamental aspirations as stability, community and a better future. Design is, or at least can be, a vehicle for exploring basic new metaphors. It is a dialogic procedure. This break from the strictly disciplinary approach of design creates space for an expansive investigation of various interdisciplinary intersections and engagement with a markedly different production of knowledge.
By presenting the seven investigative episodes developed within the 25th Ljubljana Design Biennial and their interchange with both local archives and broader paradigms, the book works to explore ways of changing the goals of design culture; of turning away from the urgent need to solve problems and instead opening up new frontiers for observation and experimentation, to look at our inhabited and habitable world for what it is and what it is becoming, and not simply what we think it should, ideally, be.

Published by Motto Books and MAO
Angela Rui, Maja Vardjan (eds.)
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Contributions by Nabil Ahmed, Andrea Branzi, Tony Côme, Brendan Cormier, matali crasset, Domitilla Dardi, Odo Fioravanti, Didier Fiúza Faustino, Studio Formafantasma, Thomas Geisler, Rory Hyde, Alexandra Midal, mischer’traxler studio, Dimitrij Mlekuž, Point Supreme Architects, Emanuele Quinz, Renata Salecl, Anna-Sophie Springer, Studio Folder, James Westcott, Elia Zenghelis and many others.

Photographic Essays by Delfino Sisto Legnaniand Marco Cappelletti.