Aladin Borioli: Hives, 2400 B.C.E. – 1852 C.E. (reprint)

Since the birth of the modern beehive in 1852, structural innovation in hive construction has entered a dormant period. By favoring the standardized box hive, beekeeping turns its back on 4,400 years of architectural diversity. This little book focuses on that period of history prior to homogenization, drawing from as far back as 2400 BCE. By rejecting a fixed narrative, linearity makes way for polymorphism, introducing graphic design, photography and writing to retell the story of beehives. The 375 images offer a glimpse into this proliferous history of architecture for non-humans.

This book is a fragment of an ongoing and open-ended research project titled “Apian” (also known as a Ministry of Bees) which uses theoretical, iconographic and ethnographic methods to research on the relationship between bees and humans.

Essay written by Ellen Lapper and Aladin Borioli. Graphic design by Nicolas Polli. 375 photographs. Fourth edition.

Aladin Borioli (b. 1988, CH) studied graphic design at the École d’arts appliqués de La Chaux-de-Fonds, photography at the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL), and holds an MA in visual and media anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. His work operates at the nexus of art, science, and beekeeping and he has received awards and fellowships in both the arts and the sciences, most recently a fellowship at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg. The artist’s works have been shown at the Images Vevey festival, Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (both Switzerland), and elsewhere.