Design Academy Eindhoven appoints Saskia van Stein as Head of 'The Critical Inquiry Lab'. Van Stein will run the retitled MA programme per 1 September 2019. She succeeds interim co-heads Agata Jaworska and Tamar Shafrir, who have run the two-years Master programme during the current academic year (2018-2019).
DAE Creative Director Joseph Grima is looking forward to the arrival of Van Stein: ‘As a master’s course, The Critical Inquiry Lab (formerly Design Curating and Writing) pursues a high level of quality, criticality, rigour and depth in the act of research. As an evolving discipline situated between design practice, cultural critique, artistic exploration, theoretical discourse, political activism and public engagement, The Critical Inquiry Lab demands its own ideologies, ethics, methods and research outputs. Saskia’s work has over the years widely explored and embodied these forms of practice, and we are very excited to welcome her into the Design Academy team.’
Saskia van Stein
Curator, writer and educator Saskia van Stein is currently artistic and managing director of Bureau Europa, Platform for Architecture and Design in Maastricht, and was previously a curator at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (currently HNI). Van Stein’s keen interest in exhibition making and the ‘politics of curating’ has led her to explore different formats and methods of knowledge production and performative display. In addition, Van Stein examines contemporary societal urgencies, how they manifest themselves at different scales, how they are analysed, visualized and expressed in the designed environment. Her cultural practice and interests address the intricate relational complex of social, political, economic, psychological and cultural phenomena.
With her strong social and cultural commitment, Saskia van Stein contributes to many debates on art, architecture and design. She has moderated events at, among others, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Dutch Design Week, the Stedelijk Museum, Holland Festival and the LUMA foundation in Arles. In addition to initiating and curating over 60 exhibitions and events, she has sat on numerous committees and juries, including the Prix de Rome, What Design Can Do and Dutch Design Awards. Last year she was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Council for Culture for the Dutch government. Van Stein lectures frequently at educational institutes in the Netherlands and currently teaches at the Royal Academy for the Arts in The Hague.