Call for 2025/2026: CuratorLab Platforms and Performativity.
How to apply
1. Apply at universityadmissions.se (for Swedish speaking applicants: antagning.se).
2. Upload files to konstfack.se
Important dates
2 December 2024: Online application (universityadmissions.se) opens.
2 December 2024: Portal to upload applicant assignment (konstfack.se) opens.
15 January 2025: Application deadline (universityadmissions.se / antagning.se).
3 February 2025: Qualifications to certify the entry requirements, and payment of application fee or certification of fee exempt status must have reached University Admissions.
Deadline to upload portfolio/files for selection to konstfack.se.
February - March 2025: Assessment of applications.
3 April 2025: Notification of selection results is published (universityadmissions.se / antagning.se)
1 September 2025: Course start.
Platforms and Performativity
CuratorLab 2025/2026 proposes an observation of curatorial practice through a series of gatherings, meetings, workshop situations, project production, historical writing and experimentation. Participants of CuratorLab will develop their own projects in close dialogue with the rest of participants, meeting professionals and observing key examples of curatorial thinking.
Two strands of thought will be offered as a system to rethink curatorial practice: Platforms and Performativity. With Carmen Lael Hines, the idea of platform will be analysed critically to reconsider curatorial work and its form of production and presentation. In dialogue with Pontus Pettersson, CuratorLab participants will consider the idea of performativity and how to understand choreographic practices from a curatorial position.
The strands of thought around Platforms and Performativity will be accompanied by meetings with professionals, institutions and historical observations of curatorial practice.
The course will be directed by Marti Manen with the collaboration of guest lecturers Carmen Lael Hines and Pontus Pettersson.
About CuratorLab
CuratorLab is a one-year international advanced curatorial course at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. We are exploring experimental approaches to the curatorial, contributing to the pertinent conversations of our times, practicing curating beyond exhibition making and applying horizontal learning.
For more than 25 years, CuratorLab has been a platform to rethink curatorial practice testing models and ways of doing. Experimental exhibitions, publications, seminars, advocacy and project development have been part of the outcomes produced during CuratorLab. The course understands flexibility and porosity as learning methodologies and defines dialogical situations for deeper conversations around criticality, societal aspects of artistic practice and the role of contemporary art today. CuratorLab has been directed by Måns Wrange, Karina Eriksson Wärm, Renée Padt, Joanna Warza and from 2024 by Marti Manen.
Marti Manen (Barcelona, 1976), the director of CuratorLab, has worked intensively with independent and institutional curatorial practice. He has curated exhibitions at the Museo de Historia Natural (Mexico City), Aara (Bangkok), Tabakalera (San Sebastian) Konsthall C (Stockholm), CA2M (Madrid), and Fabra i Coats (Barcelona). Manen was the curator of the Spanish Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and curated Momentum10 (Biennial in Moss, Norway, 2019). In the 1990s, he curated five years of exhibitions in his room located in a student flat in Barcelona. Marti Manen has published books including Salir de la exposición (Leaving the Exhibition) (Consonni), Contarlo todo sin saber cómo (Telling everything not knowing how) (CA2M), and When Lines Are Time (Miró Foundation Barcelona). Since 2018 Marti Manen is Director of Index - The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation in Stockholm.
More on www.curatorlab.se
Course director
Marti Manen
Carmen Lael Hines, Pontus Petersson (guest lecturers)
Course Syllabus
KOY030
Language of instruction
All teaching, tutoring, and examinations are conducted in English.
Credits and form of study
60 credits (1 year), full-time, daytime, distance and on-campus.
The course is organised through a series of physical meetings in Stockholm, online continuity and a research trip to Barcelona.
Examination
Examination involves completion of assignments and active participation in all parts of the course.
Entry Requirements
Bachelor’s degree of 180 credits, or higher, in fine arts, art history, critical studies, curatorial studies, architecture, crafts and design, and/or equivalent work experience in independent curatorial practices or within institutions for at least three years. And proficiency in English equivalent to Swedish upper secondary school course English 6/English B. Read more about the language requirements here.
Selection and assessment of applicant assignments
The selection is based on an overall assessment of the applicant’s previous relevant work experience, motivation, project proposal and portfolio, and possible interviews.
How to apply to CuratorLab
1. Submit an online application to the Swedish central application website www.universityadmissions.se, and send qualifications to support the entry requirements to universityadmissions.se
2. Upload files electronically via Konstfack's website. These files will be used in the selection between eligible applicants.
Files to submit to Konstfack.se
One (1) PDF file consisting of three to five (3–5) pages.
Page 1: Biography, including your interests in the topic of the course.
Page 2: Project proposal or description of possible ideas for your collaboration-contribution.
Page 3–5: Documentation of relevant working experience (3 pages maximum).
Note that the project proposal functions as a presentation of your ideas and fields of interest, it must not be realised in this exact form during the course.
Name your file using this format: lastname_firstname
Important information about your applicant assignment/portfolio.
Technical specifications
To be able to assess your portfolio correctly, it is important that you comply with these technical specifications.
The PDF file must not be password-protected or set to force the presentation into full screen.