The Architecture of Staged RealitiesThe Architecture of Staged Realities

Curator Saskia van Stein researched the impact of Walt Disney's cultural heritage on our identity and our built environment. With the exhibition _The Architecture of Staged Realities, _which will open in September 2021, this research is given form by spatial designer Frédérique Albert-Bordenave and graphic designer Irene Stracuzzi. What ideas and ideals underlie the world that Disney presents us? How to make a choice between the different storylines and perspectives?

Saskia van Stein is a curator who currently works as the head of the Critical Inquiry Lab MA department at Design Academy Eindhoven. She will be joined by Frédérique Albert-Bordenave, a Canadian artist and art director of Random Studio, and Irene Stracuzzi, a graphic designer and design tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Take a look behind-the-scenes at Het Nieuwe Instituut and think along with research, exhibitions and programmes that are currently in the works.

Curator Saskia van Stein, currently Head of the MA The Critical Inquiry Lab at Design Academy Eindhoven, previously was the artistic director of Bureau Europa, Platform for Architecture and Design in Maastricht (The Netherlands) and curator at the Nederlands Architecture Institute (NAI). Van Stein's interest in creating exhibitions and the 'politics of curating' has led her to explore the different formats and methods of knowledge production and performativity. Stein also researches contemporary societal urges, how they manifest themselves in different levels, how they are analysed, visualised and expressed in the designed environment.

Frédérique Albert-Bordenave is a Canadian artist and art director who works and lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She graduated from the Architecture Design department at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 2017. Her work has been exhibited, amongst others, at De Koepel, Haarlem in 2018 and photography museum Foam, Amsterdam in 2020 at Foam Editions. Albert-Bordenave was selected by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) for the 3Package Deal program for the year 2018/2019. She currently works at Random Studio.

Irene Stracuzzi is a graphic designer based in Amsterdam and teaches in the master departments at Design Academy Eindhoven as a design tutor. Specialising in graphic design, art direction and information design, she works independently as well as collaboratively for clients in the fields of art and culture. Her research practice aims at translating complex findings into accessible visual formats, reflecting on the role of design as a critical tool to share knowledge.