Emma Pflieger is a French designer and co-founder of the innovative design studio Studio Pflieger-Foeglé, which employs a research-driven cross-disciplinary approach to craft spaces, installations, and graphic design.
Is there a particular moment or experience that you connect to the theme Double Agent?
I was very excited to share with a book that I had read, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a young woman (Mary) who is locked in a room by her husband (John). He imposes a rest cure on her, making her believe that she is suffering from "temporary nervous depression" after the birth of their baby. Not only is the protagonist trapped in a room, but she also feels trapped in the wallpaper that covers the walls. She begins to see the floral serpentine & the curves of the patterns on the wall come to life and sees prisoners like herself being held in this room. She decides to tear off the wallpaper to free the trapped women and herself. The fact that the protagonist of this feminist novel is locked in a room by a man, resonates with how women have been defined by men as sensitive, emotional, and pure - like a flower.
Alexandra was obviously familiar with the novel, which is also to be a part of the exhibition, and told me that it was one of the readings she used to recommend to all her female students as one of first feminist novels/essays.
I was very honoured that she asked me to work with her on this meaningful, bold and highly political project.
Are there any discoveries that have surprised you in preparation for the biennial?
"Girls don't have any fun!" say boys, scornfully; and they don't have very much. What they do have must come, like their bread and butter, on lines of sex. Some man must give them what amusement they have, as he must give them everything else. Men have filled the world with games and sports, from the noble contests of the Olympic plain to the brain and body training sports of to-day, good, bad, and indifferent. Through all the ages the men have played; and the women have looked on, when they were asked. Even the amusing occupation of seeing other people do things was denied them, unless they were invited by the real participants. The "queen of the ball-room" is but a wall-flower, unless she is asked to dance by the real king.
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics, 1898
What excites you the most about the BIO 28 Double Agent - Do You Speak Flower?
Two rooms : one in the castle and one room in Isis Gallery. But I won’t spoil it.
Do you speak Flower?
Video was originally featured in a 2017 interview with The Washington Post about the film “The Post.”
Which book, film, and song do you recommend to future visitors of BIO28?
Book:Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Film: Bouquets d’image, Rose Lowder, 1995-95
Song: Flowers, Miley Cyrus
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Photography by: Valérie Szabo