Designer Lara Bohinc was awarded Miami Design District’s 2023 Annual Design Commission for her immersive installation of functional sculptures that realize a vision of sustainable urban living, creating public spaces where people and nature harmoniously coexist Lara Bohinc, of Bohinc Studio, has not only taken over the Miami Design District with her winning concept Utopia but also at the entrance of the international collectible design fair Design Miami/ from 5th December 2023. Commissioned in collaboration with Design Miami Curatorial Lab, Lara Bohinc’s installation of functional sculptures responds to this year’s theme “Where We Stand” with three clusters of public spaces where people can meet and reflect upon the world around us. The installation in front of the Design Miami exhibition features Synchronicity three seater sofas in coral color, Utopia armchairs in raspberry, Beginning coffee table in cyclamen, and Friends side table in tomato red. Friendly and dynamic, the sculptures are suggestive of living objects, mushrooming across the district with their kind yet mysterious presence. Utopia is an immersive installation of functional sculptures that realize a vision of sustainable urban living, creating public spaces where people and nature harmoniously coexist. Utopia is Bohinc Studio’s first public commission in the US and spans four installations featuring irregular, bulbous forms reminiscent of growing cellular organisms and lifeforms. Friendly and dynamic, the sculptures are suggestive of living objects, mushrooming across the district with their kind yet mysterious presence. The colorful and tactile sculptures include outdoor seaters, tables, and imposing 3-meter-tall light sculptures, placed within proximity to create intimate and comforting resting places. A constellation of nine hundred egg-shaped birdhouses is interspersed among the tree branches, providing colorful refuge and shade for local wildlife. Echoing the function of the birdhouses, a giant, centrepiece 2-metre tall egg-form will provide a playful hideout for small children. At night, the solar-powered sculptures will come to life and create an atmospheric luminous glow. Painted by hand in vibrant pastel hues of pistachio, aqua, lavender, cherry blossom, and eggshell blue, Bohinc’s designs pay homage to Miami’s architectural color palette and bring elements of playfulness, functionality, and comfort to the outdoor areas that the installations inhabit. With a focus on environmental issues, Bohinc’s pieces are made from cork – a natural, waterproof, and environmentally friendly material, native to Portugal, constructed with the assistance of a 5D robotic milling machine and completed by hand. The thought-provoking sculptures invite passersby to interact with their functional forms and clustered together, conceptualize a utopian future that questions how we might better engage with the natural world. Intermingling with the District’s walkways and enlivening the public spaces as a place to convene, the organic objects become a living thread, engaging with the native trees and architecture to create a place of reflection for visitors. “I am honored to be awarded Miami Design District’s Annual Design Commission this year. This is my largest work to date and my first public commission in the U.S.A. It has been a wonderful process creating these organic and colorful forms for this Installation, and truly rewarding to see them come to life in such a sustainable way.” Lara Bohinc says. “It was a true pleasure to join forces with the Miami Design District and, through Design Miami/ Curatorial Lab, invite artists and designers to share their proposals to transform the Design District with an immersive installation during Art Week this December. We received innovative and thought-provoking submissions from around the world and look forward with great anticipation to seeing the wonderfully talented work of this year’s nominated designer, Lara Bohinc, come to life in the Miami Design District and at our flagship fair in Miami Beach,” says Grela Orihuela, Senior Vice President, Fairs, Design Miami/. “Art possesses an extraordinary power to transfigure our surroundings, and this year, in partnership with the exceptional talent of Lara Bohinc, our installation promises to be nothing short of mesmerizing. As we embrace the convergence of creativity, culture, and urban design, by offering a dynamic platform for artists to reshape our landscape, we also continue to elevate our community and strengthen Miami’s ever-evolving art scene,” says Craig Robins, President and CEO of DACRA. The Miami Design District Commission–an annual initiative in its 9th year–invites creatives to enliven the neighborhood at a time of the year when the communities of art and design convene in the city for Miami Art Week. Utopia will remain publicly installed until mid-2024. About Studio Bohinc After a decade-long stint with Cartier, exploring sculpture through jewelry, Lara Bohinc embarked upon creating functional pieces for a living. Finding the larger medium so compelling following a series of private commissions, Bohinc launched her studio in 2016 to dedicate her practice to object and furniture design. Working with wood, glass, metals, marble, ceramics, and textiles, among other materials, the studio creates work of iconic beauty that honors traditional principles of craft and employs expertise in material and manufacturing techniques. Function fused with modernity forms the genesis of Bohinc’s contemporary design practice, feeding an obsession with the deconstruction and reconfiguration of form, expressed in the finest materials. Bohinc’s signature is a mix of contradictions: bold yet light, graphic yet fluid, angular yet feminine. About Miami Design District The Miami Design District is a one-of-a-kind neighborhood that combines luxury shopping, galleries, museums, design stores, restaurants, and major art and design installations all within an architecturally significant context. The Miami Design District is owned and operated by Miami Design District Associates, a partnership between Dacra, founded and owned by visionary entrepreneur Craig Robins, and L Catterton Real Estate, a global real estate development and investment fund, specializing in creating luxury shopping destinations. As Miami becomes increasingly known for its own rich culture, the growth of the Miami Design District further reflects how the city is deserving of its place on the global stage. About Design Miami/ Design Miami/ connects the world through extraordinary collectible design, with live fairs that bring together galleries, designers, brands, experts, collectors, and enthusiasts. Each edition of Design Miami/ features museum-quality 20th and 21st-century furniture, lighting, and objets d’art from the world’s top, expertly vetted galleries, in addition to showcasing immersive design collaborations with celebrated brands. Design Miami’s flagship fairs take place alongside Art Basel in Miami, Florida, each December, in Basel, Switzerland, each June, and now in Paris, France, each October in conjunction with Paris+ par Art Basel. Design Miami/ is also accessible 365 days a year through designmiami.com, a content-rich digital marketplace featuring works from leading galleries and original editorial and video content on Forum Magazine.
