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 [Re-]Thinking Curating Design and Craft: Negotiating practices

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Welcome to the seventh conversation about contemporary curatorial practice operating in relation to Design and Craft!

With Rayan Elnayal and Heba Tabidi (Space Black) and Elof Hellström, Introduction and moderation by Magnus Ericson and Christina Zetterlund.

In this seminar we discuss how practices transcending disciplinary borders as well as acting beyond institutional frameworks are negotiated through various curatorial approaches. Inserting themselves into different cultural, civic society and educational contexts enables new spaces and engagement with a multitude of communities. Through creating these new frameworks allowing for diverse imaginations and histories, learnings as well as various forms world makings can take place. During the seminar we will consider what can be realised negotiating these spaces and practices and what it takes to make this possible. 

Group of people gathered in a room around blue benches

Photo: JustineTrickett

Ardagh Young Creatives workshop, Design Museum, London 2023.

As alternative built-environment practice Space Black engages with alternative modes of practice aiming to radically reimagine and rebuild spaces for marginalised communities. They explore underrepresented and under-resourced spatial ideas through concept design and research, education, and culture. Through presenting some key projects they share how using interdisciplinary forms of practice within different contexts can form a holistic approach. Elof Hellström works between organizing community spaces, collective research, writing, editing and pedagogy and his research interests include spatial justice, urban commons, publishing strategies and critical mapping. He will present and discuss two collective works emerging from Cyklopen, a self-built and self-managed cultural house in the Stockholm suburb Högdalen.

Space Black is a London based interdisciplinary built-environment studio that engages with alternative modes of practice with their creative, technical, and humanitarian disciplines. They take a responsive approach, with a focus on the strategic and intentional inclusion of  end users into the design process. This is achieved through curation, participatory practices and collaboration to facilitate collective imagination. Space Black is led by architectural designer and visual artist Rayan Elnayal and civil engineer and DJ Heba Tabidi.

Elof Hellström is artistic director of Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus in Stockholm and between 2023 – 2025 he was adjunct lecturer at KKH where he led the research-based course Tusen kulturhus. He is a co-founder and member of the transdisciplinary right-to-the-city collectives SIFAV (2012 – 2017) and Mapping the Unjust City (2015 –), whose works has been shown at ArkDes, Konsthall C, Tensta Konsthall and Index Foundation, among others, and was previously co-editor of Stockholmstidningen, a free newspaper about urban transformation. 2025 he was awarded the Dynamostipendiet from the Swedish Arts Council together with Sebastian Dahlqvist.

Christina Zetterlund is Craft and Design historian active as independent curator as well as educator and researcher at the Department of Design, Linnaeus University. Magnus Ericson is Head of Applied Arts, IASPIS and a curator and educator working across Design, Architecture, urbanism, and Art.

[Re-]Thinking Curating Design and Craft is a series of conversations presented by IASPIS, developed and implemented as a collaboration between Christina Zetterlund and Magnus Ericson.