Fabio Franz

Born 1983 in Cologne/Germany.

Brave New Alps (Bianca Elzenbaumer and Fabio Franz) gained their bachelor degree in design at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. In 2007 Bianca gained an MA in International Peacebuilding and Mediation at the University of Bologna. From 2008 to 2010 they studied together at the Royal College of Art in London and obtained an MA in Communication Art & Design. Since 2011 Bianca is working as a design-fellow on her PhD thesis at Goldsmiths College, London.

Their realised projects include among others: Decode Jerusalem, an alternative travel guide to East Jerusalem (2007); Fortezza Open Archive Franzenfeste, Manifesta 7, Italy (2008); Department 21, an experimental, student-led department at the Royal College of Art (2009/2010); Laboratorio Campano, an investigation into the illegal dumping of toxic waste in Southern Italy (2010); Designing Economic Cultures (2011-ongoing), a practice-based research on socially and politically engaged practice despite precariousness.

In 2010 Brave New Alps won the Museion Art Prize and spent five months in residency at AIR-Laboratory in Warsaw. In 2011 they were in residence at Careof/Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan with the support oft he department for German Culture of the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol. In 2012 they won the Italian prize for young cultural producers GAI – MOVIN’UP and spent three months in Bethlehem at Campus in Camps.

Since 2011, they are part oft he Italian collective Cantiere per pratiche non-affermative which aims at creating support structures for socially and politically engaged designers.

http://www.brave-new-alps.com/