Korana Mileusnić’s graduation project “home/work on repeat – hygiene as sustainable interaction with the microbial” explores our relationship with the invisible microbial world while questioning the commercialisation of hygiene and an industry that transforms the need for cleanliness into a pursuit of unattainable sterility.

Starting from everyday cleaning rituals, the project examines the boundary between necessary hygiene and an obsessive desire for control. At the centre of the exhibition is the “Totem”, a structure composed of newly created cleaning tools that are transformed from hidden household objects into exposed, interactive artefacts. Visitors are invited to use them and explore new relationships between the body, dirt and microorganisms.

The gallery is coded through an intense green colour and conceived as a stylised testing ground for everyday cleaning situations. Through humour, estrangement and active participation, the project seeks to demystify the microbial world and reduce fear of its omnipresence. Hygiene is thus transformed from a Sisyphean pursuit of absolute cleanliness into a sustainable practice of coexistence with microbes.

The project was developed at the School of Design during the 2024/2025 academic year under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Nika Pavlinek.

The exhibition is part of the “Unreal Balance” programme of the School of Design Gallery and is co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City of Zagreb and the School of Design.