TO BEE OR NOT TO BE / CTRLZAK STUDIO

TO BEE OR NOT TO BE is a project on the importance of bees and their protection.

Special project for GREEN ISLAND 2015 / Alveari Urbani, at Terraggio’s garden in Milan

by CTRLZAK Studio 

CTRLZAK was inititally asked by GREEN ISLAND initiative to design an urban beehive, but after an extensive research on the subject it was obvious that such an object was not the first priority. Instead emphasis was placed on communicating to the world the important role bees play in our everyday life. This realisation gave birth to two graphic artworks that present the bees` life cycle, their habitat and above all the role they play on pollination and eventually our own survival on planet Earth.

 

Inside this context a toolkit was also designed that contains an informative booklet on the world of bees, a selection of seeds from their favourite flowers and a wooden sling that promotes seed planting in a playful/guerilla mode (by launching soil pellets rich in seeds). These and more tools are included into the wooden box which once emptied can also be hanged on a tree and serve as a rudimental beehive. Finally in order to spread the message even further, a series of postcards containing diverse flower seeds (prefered by bees and in this case suited to a temperate climate) where sent and distributed around Europe. 

 

A symbolic project/call to action to help bees survival that promotes a few simple gestures: avoid the use of chemical pesticides and plant more and diverse flowers. Because as A.Einstein put it: “If the bees disappear from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live”.

CTRLZAK is a hybrid studio that integrates different disciplines and cultures. The founders, Katia Meneghini and Thanos Zakopoulos, are both artists and designers in their own right. The Italian-Greek duo’s creations are inspired by their travels and experiences around the world and by their own rich cultural backgrounds.

 

The studio creates artworks, objects and spaces but– above all– situations where people can come together in order to make what really matters: human relations. CTRLZAK`s projects and extensive research into tradition and cultural context create a new hybrid future by learning from the past. Each project is a story waiting to be told, with a multitude of forms and endings. Each one experiments with diverse methods of narration where irony and symbolism go beyond aesthetics and functionality, in order to activate mechanisms of reflection.