Artist in Residence, Stockholm, 18 November 2025–20 February 2026

Francesca Gattello is an Italian social designer and independent researcher based in Palermo. In 2020, she established LOTs (Libero Osservatorio Territoriale Sud), an NGO focusing on socio-cultural innovation and storytelling in inland Sicily.

Photo: Alessandra Canteri

Francesca Gattello

In her work, she challenges the established design system through an experience-based approach that combines theory and grounded practice, while hybridizing her expertise by exploring the boundaries between design, art and architecture fields.

Her research investigates notions of ‘material culture’ and ‘minor vernacular heritage’ in Mediterranean areas, as well as ‘civic and collective uses of means of production’, with the aim of reinventing narratives and traditions. She develops participatory practices and site- committed actions to create shared knowledge in marginalised contexts and with underprivileged communities.

During her IASPIS residency, she will continue to research, work on and expand the project The Kitchen as a Heterotopia. This project examines how participatory practices can reclaim collective spaces and political agency, connecting food and diasporic communities across Italy, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sweden. Exploring the concept of the ‘Kitchen’ as an ‘alter’ space for creating alternatives, connections and dialogue.

Francesca Gattello studied at the Politecnico di Milano, completing both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and undertook a post-Master’s course in Decolonising Architecture at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She received scholarships for her research projects from the C.M. Lerici Foundation in Stockholm (2022), and the Istituto di Formazione Politica “Pedro Arrupe” Centro Studi Sociali in Palermo + the Sylff Association in Tokyo (2020).

She has participated in the following exhibitions (selection): Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, Wellcome Collection, London (2025-2026); ITALY: a New Collective Landscape, HKDI Gallery, Hong Kong (2025); / Expo 2010 Italian Pavilion, Shanghai (2024)/ ADI Design Museum, Milan (2023); Earthrise – Design for a Living Planet, Circolo del Design, Turin (2024); Difficult Heritage Summer School, DAAS – Decolonizing Architecture Advanced Studies, Borgo Rizza, Carlentini, Syracuse (2022); Reverse Towards a New Paradigm | God is Green V Edition, Manifattura Tabacchi, Florence (2022); ExpoAction: Infinite Creativity for a Finite World, École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Parc de La Villette, Paris (2021).

Instagram: www.instagram.com/francesca.gattello
Facebook: www.facebook.com/francesca.gattello.9
Website 1: www.liberoosservatorioterritoriale.com
Website 2: www.marginalstudio.com