May 9, 16, 23  'The Kitchen Square' cooking relay with 24 local women and families from Hallonbergen in collaboration with Marabouparken konsthall, MAPURBAN researchproject, Stella Nova, Verdandi and Balder. 

UPCOMING 2022

Sept 14-21 MAPURBAN researchproject LONDON 

PUBLIC SEMINAR, 'The Kitchen Square', Idea Store Whitechapel, Sept 19 

ACADEMIC SEMINAR, 'The Kitchen Square Method', UCL, University of Central London, Sept 20

RECENT 2022

May 9, 16, 23  2022 'The Kitchen Square' cooking relay with 24 local women and their

social networks in the local neighbourhood of Hallonbergen in collaboration with Marabouparken

Konsthall, MAPURBAN research project, the pre-school Stella Nova, Verdandi and Balder. 

May 23 MAPPING URBAN RESOURCES & KITCHEN SQUARE CONFERENCE 

at Marabouparken konsthall. Part of the international research project MAPURBAN (2021-22) in collaboration with Anne Legeby, KTH, UCL, University of  Kent, University of Coventry, Free University, Berlin. Swedish partners: 

The City of Sundbyberg, the Growth and Regional Planning Office (TRF), A-KTH and Marabouparken konsthall.  https://jpiurbaneurope.eu/project/mapurban/ https://research.kent.ac.uk/mapurban-eu/

June 16-17 MAPURBAN researchproject BERLIN PUBLIC SEMINAR, EXHIBITION

June LIVE-PROJECT 'The Kitchen of Praxagora 2.0' Six days cooking relay with local women in suburbs of Stockholm:  Husby, Tensta and Bredäng, The City of Stockholm  (2022)

MAY 14, GROUP-SHOW AVFART Curated by Björn Norberg in collaboration with the Art and Architecture institution Zimmhall. https://www.zimmhall.com

A new beginning for Anastasiia

THE BLIND ALLEY, March 2022 

The Blind Alley by Özge Açıkkol and Elin Strand Ruin, ' REFECTIONS FROM THE WOMANS ARCHIVES', DEPO Istanbul, MARCH 2022

The women from Balat visited the replica of 'their street' at the exhibition March 29, 2022. Tea, cake and discussions together with The Womens Library and Archive, Özge Açıkkol and Elin Strand Ruin.

The Blind Alley by Özge Açıkkol and Elin Strand Ruin, ' REFECTIONS FROM THE WOMANS ARCHIVES', DEPO Istanbul, MARCH 2022

The exhibition REFECTIONS FROM THE WOMEN'S ARCHIVES DEPO, Istanbul March 17 - April 29, 2022
An art project researching The Woman’s Library and Archive initiated by Mike Bode, The Swedish Consulate General, The Swedish Institute/Equal Spaces in collaboration with Gallery Depo. In the project three Swedish and Turkish artists are paired: Larissa Araz and Petra Bauer, Şafak Şule Kemancı and Ays Alayat, Özge Açıkkol and Elin Strand Ruin

https://www.depoistanbul.net/en/event/reflections-from-the-womens-archives/ 
 

“Is this space really as narrow as it looks from the outside?”(Ertug, 2013/20) 
 











model of a domestic public space with the potential to become a strategic urban countermovement for today's environmental crises. A living archive and sensory experience: collected knowledge and recipes entwined with photographs, cut outs, letters and sound files, plants and words, gestures, textures, itineraries, connections and feelings from the everyday life of the women both from the Women’s Library an-archive and from the rural-urban neighbourhood of Balat and many other places in Istanbul.   

TEXT by Elin Strand Ruin and Özge Açıkkol:  https://www.depoistanbul.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2022_13m2_OzgeElin.pdf
“How Women Relate to Space in Rural Anatolia” (2020) by Fusun Ertug in Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Woman and Space in Turkey, ed. Gönül Bakay, Peter Lang, 2020.

Azime, Besime, Eda, Fevziye, Füsun, Güllü, Müfide, Makbule, 
Meliha, Simla, Süreyya, Şengül, Zehra, Nakiye, Ecem and Gökçe. 
The Blind Alley emerged from our common interest in women’s networks explored in relation to public space. By focusing on domestic life and everyday practices in The Women’s Library’s archive and connecting it to its close neighbourhood of Balat, the research led us to uncover lost connections. Not only between the private households and local women’s networks in Balat and the public institution of the Archive, but also between rural women and urban spatial circumstances and the Archive’s founding women’s network. The Blind Alley is presented at Depo Istanbul as an existing

The Blind Alley by Özge Açıkkol and Elin Strand Ruin, ' REFECTIONS FROM THE WOMANS ARCHIVES', DEPO Istanbul, MARCH 2022

The Kitchen of Praxagora 2.0, The City of Stockholm,  Kulturförvaltningen /Evenemangsavdelningen. Visiting Hökarängen, Tensta, Bredäng, 2021.

THE KITCHEN OF PRAXAGORA 2.0, 2021-2022

The Kitchen of Praxagora 2.0, The City of Stockholm,  Kulturförvaltningen /Evenemangsavdelningen. Visiting Hökarängen, Tensta, Bredäng, 2021.

THE KITCHEN SQUARE, 2019-2023

Photo Anders Bobert

Photo Alexandra Sell

Photo Alexandra Sell

The Kitchen Square, 2019

The Kitchen Square, 2019, in the suburb of Hallonbergen, The City of Sundbyberg, Stockholm. A public space, permanent sculpture and a social tool.  A long-term dialogue process that will last during the Hallonbergen Centre Refurbishment (2019-24) focusing on exploring and developing ' The Kitchen Square Method ' . When the downtown area is completed, The Kitchen Square will get att permanent position: 'a sculpture on a pedestal' on the city square, still possible to activate as a large common local kitchen. In collaboration with Stella Nova, Verdandi, Marabouparken Artspace and the developer Balder. Funded by Kulturbryggan and Balder.  

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May 9, 16, 23 (2022) 'The Kitchen Square Method' COCKING-RELAY with more then 25 local women and their families from Hallonbergen in collaboration with Marabouparken Artgallery, MAPURBAN researchproject, Stella Nova, Verdandi and Balder. MAPUBAN 2021-22 Part of the international research project MAPURBAN (2021-22) in collaboration with Anne Legeby, KTH, UCL, University of Kent, Free University, Berlin and The City of Sundbyberg, Marabouparken Artspace and Region Sthlm.  https://jpiurbaneurope.eu/project/mapurban/

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The Kitchen Square, 2019

THE KITCHEN OF PRAXAGORA 1.0, 2016

The Kitchen of Praxagora, 2016, Documentation-film by Lisa Partby and Elin Strand Ruin

Published the project Praxagoras Kök in ARCHITECTURE AND FEMINISM being a part of ’the Critiques series’ with Routledge in association with the AHRA (Architectural Humanities Research Association), 2017 

"When Shazia Chaudhry, who has worked at the Stella Nova kindergarten of Stella Nova for 20 years, and knew knows everyone in the area, was cooking in the centre of Hallonbergen on a Sunday afternoon in May, she became a node for those who passed by; children, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, teens,  friends of her family, etc. The social network and bonds of friends- hip and family bonds that Shazia has built up in the neighbourhood for many years, became visible in her act of cooking. Our question, after having carried out this temporary study for in advance of a long-term project, was: how could a permanent physical intervention make women’s experiences, their labour, their care work, and their networks visible to strengthen the public sphere?"

City planning 

Jubeleepark, Feministic Cityplanning Project, in collaboration with Spridd Architects and Lovley Landskap, commisioned by The City of Gothenburg, 

http://www.spridd.se/jubileumsparken-2021         http://www.spridd.se/nyheter/2016/11/18/feministisk-och-hllbar-stadsplanering

KNITTING HOUSE 2010-2017

Knitting House in collaboration with The New Beauty Council 2010-17.      

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Knitting House sought to create space for speculation and imagination, but also to produce place and identity rather than simply representing or reflecting it. 

Knitting House, Arkdes, 2013, exhibitioncatalogue https://arkdes.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/knitting-house.pdf

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Knitting House has been exhibited at Husby Art Space (2010), The Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (2012), ArkDes (Sweden's National Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm) (2013) and Marabouparken Art Space (2017). Knitting House takes the form of a knitted model of a two-bedroom apartment in a building on Oslogatan 8 in the Stockholm suburb of Husby. I initiated this art-architecture project, which was implemented through a collaboration with the curator Annika Enqvist of The New Beauty Council, in response to an invite from Husby Artspace; it took five years to complete the work. The project was realized in the autumn of 2010 mainly by a group of local women from the neighborhood; and initially students from the Masters of Architecture program at KTH-A and the Masters of Textile Design program at Konstfack, the University of Arts, Craft and Design; a couple of professional craftspeople. Over the course of eight weeks, we turned the 

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2-bedroomflat at Oslogatan 8 in Husby into a factory and an active public space. The idea of "knitting" the flat was a tribute, a declaration of love to the lives lived in these flats for nearly 40 years. By using twelve knitting machines, we created a reproduction of the Oslogatan dwelling, which is a typical standard apartment from the Swedish Million Programme era (built 1974). Moving out of the relatively private sphere of the flat into the public sphere of the art gallery also reinforced the feeling that the work was relevant outside the group itself. The women from Husby spoke at the opening seminar of their residential environment and problems in this low-income area.

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Knitting House - production at Oslogatan 8 and exhibition at Husby Art 2010 -  Film commissioned by Arkdes 2013 edited by Shiva Anoushirvani and Elin Strand Ruin.

EXHIBITIONS. PUBLIC ART. LECTURES. DEBATE.