WinterVisual concept for a Venice Biennale Exhibition

“Winter” was title of a collective exhibition that occupied one of the palazzi of the Venice International Art Exhibition. The curatorial project was inspired by the 19th century Kazakh poem “Winter”. The poem, by poet and thinker Abay Qunanbayuli, was concerned with questions of social justice.

We joined the curators Tiago Bom and Ayatgali Tuleubek to design the full communication for the project. We devised the combination of a bilingual logo with a typographic play. The logo's shape resembles a block (evoking a length of wintery time as much as a barrier) in combination with a vibrant purple color, the winter’s promise of spring.

We developed a “branded” image that was applied to a wide range of communication materials, including a website, brochures and exhibition signage for the Venice venue. The spread use of the last stance of Abay’s poem in most printed materials also became a strong mark of the event.

A full parallel programme took place in Norway, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, for which we designed communication pieces from a flexible typographic system, that could be strong and effective both in Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

Instead of a classic exhibition catalogue, the essay book “Winter: Poetics & Politics", was published by Mousse Publishing. Gathering reflexions on social, cultural and politic subjects, the book aimed to be the starting point of a fresh and open discussion that would bring hope to Central Asia.