The curatorship workshop is a research and presentation format of spatial phenomena in Israel. The workshop combines lectures and practical experience in curatorship processes. The workshop teaches students studying various areas of design how to make an argument through visual and spatial means, and to use tools that are unique to the field of architecture and spatial design as a means for telling a story and taking a stand on spatial issues in the exhibition space.
The research topic in the years 2015-2016 was “The Aging, Death and Rebirth of Malls”. The students conducted a research towards an exhibition that would present long-standing shopping centers and malls that have failed in the tough competition of Israel’s commercial market in the past decade, or whose glory days are over. The research emphasized the appeal to a diverse clientele, and presented unique urban, social and cultural aspects that developed in long-standing malls. The two-year research enabled the first-year workshop students to focus on the research and to design conceptual exhibitions for the gallery, and the second-year workshop students to focus on designing a shared exhibition for both groups, after experiencing a relatively-short research exercise.
The research subject in 2014 was new uses for structures from the 50s to 70s in Tel-Aviv. The workshop products were presented in the exhibition “Exposed: Structures from the 50s to the 70s”, at the Architects’ House Gallery, in collaboration with the Buildings Preservation Workshop and curator partners.
