James Taylor-Foster
Selected writing 2015 – 2022
  • About
  • Category
  • Title
  • Publication
  • Year
  • Curatorial
  • ✶ Solicited: Proposals
  • 2021
James Taylor-Foster
editor & writer of essays & reviews,
architectural designer,
maker of exhibitions
Selected writing 2015 – 2022
  • ✶ Solicited: Proposals
Fig 1. Elements of the Exhibition. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

What happens in an architecture exhibition? What, and who is it for? What does it do, and how does it do it?

Solicited: Proposals is a shared effort to parse the architecture exhibition, to untangle and rethink its meaning and its potential for today. Through the lens of a single element, each contribution seeks to reimagine the architecture exhibition: what it allows for and does not allow for; what it enables, what it disables; what it constructs and deconstructs.

Reimagining the architecture exhibition

The exhibition is a crucial format for representation and reflection. Architecture exhibitions speak to both disciplinary and non-disciplinary, local and non-local concerns, creating a dialogue and offering the potential to strengthen both. In positioning ideas and objects in dialogue, presenting them for scrutiny and debate, they create spaces of togetherness, of considered dissent, of understanding.

The relevance of architecture exhibitions is constantly changing, and they are worth continual reconsideration. Solicited: Proposals seeks to frame freethinking within challenges that are older than today and that could feed into questions around what institutions are, could, can, and should be. It informs ongoing work in rethinking the rooms, experiences, and curatorial approaches currently underway at ArkDes in Stockholm.

Elements of the exhibition

An exhibition is a complex machine of both tangible and intangible moving parts, each of which are possible avenues into considering and radically rethinking what makes them both useful and relevant.

This project begins with nine elements that constitute exhibitions: the seating, the collection, the timeframe, the object list, the threshold, the outdoors, the queue, the budget, and the interpretation. There are a practically endless number of elements, however. Consider: the list of participants, the plinth, the ten-minute tour, the press release, the object list, the title, the caption, the opening hours, the cappuccino, the locker, the ticket, the collection, the greeting, the livestream, the no-touch sign, the comment card, the website, the brochure, the automatic door, the threshold, the gift shop, the publication, the bathroom, the bench, the Wi-Fi, the security, the agreement, the pitch, the biography, the outdoors, the translation, the surveillance camera, the queue, the maximum capacity, the risk assessment…

The Seating: Maria Lind

Fig 2. The Seating by Maria Lind. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Collection: Shirley Surya

Fig 3. The Collection by Shirley Surya. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Timeframe: Prem Krishnamurthy

Fig 4. The Timeframe by Prem Krishnamurthy. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Object List: Federico Martelli

Fig 5. The Object List by Federico Martelli. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Threshold: Vasif Kortun

Fig 6. The Threshold by Vasif Kortun. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Outdoors: Gilly Karjevsky and Rosario Talevi +

Fig 7. The Outdoors by Gilly Karjevsky and Rosario Talevi. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Queue: Mpho Matsipa, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Molemo Moiloa

Fig 8. The Queue by Mpho Matsipa, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Molemo Moiloa. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Budget: Jia Yi Gu

Fig 9. The Budget by Jia Yi Gu. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Interpretation: Esther Choi

Fig 10. The Interpretation by Esther Choi. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Brief: Anna Livia Friel, Marco Provinciali

Fig 11. The Brief by Anna Livia Friel and Marco Provinciali. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Caption: Mika Savela

Fig 12. The Caption by Mika Savela. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Weather: Lev Bratishenko, Melanija Grozdanoska

Fig 13. The Weather by Lev Bratishenko and Melanija Grozdanoska. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Moment: Maria McLintock

Fig 14. The Moment by Maria McLintock. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Guide: Space Popular

Fig 15. The Guide by Space Popular. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Horizon: Civil Architecture

Fig 16. The Horizon by Civil Architecture. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.


Editors Nick Axel and Nikolaus Hirsch (e-flux Architecture) James Taylor-Foster (ArkDes) Illustration Andreas Samuelsson/Agent Molly&Co.
Solicited: Proposals is a project initiated by ArkDes and e-flux Architecture, and published between October and December 2021. Following an open call, additional contributions were published between February and March 2022.

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James Taylor-Foster
editor & writer of essays & reviews,
architectural designer,
maker of exhibitions
  • CuratorialI.
  • ProjectsII.
  • PublicationsIII.
  • SpeakingIV.
  • WritingV.
I.Curatorial
  • ✶ WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD, London2022
  • ✶ Mira Bergh × Josefin Zachrisson: Utomhusverket2022
  • ✶ The Limits of Our World: LARP and Design2022
  • ✶ Solicited: Proposals2021
  • ✶ Studio Ossidiana: Utomhusverket2021
  • WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD, Stockholm2020
  • Architecture Projects: Skeppsbron + Brunnsparken2019
  • Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Gay Sex, Cruising Culture2019
  • The Craft of Swedish Videogame Design2019
  • Petra Gipp and Mikael Olsson; Sigurd Lewerentz – Freestanding2018
  • Space Popular: Value in the Virtual2018
  • You Are Not Alone2017
  • In Therapy2016
  • Keeping Up Appearances2015
II.Projects
  • ASMR, An Exhibition Trailer2022
  • Watch & Chill 2.0: Streaming Senses2022
  • ASMRology2021
  • Plug-in Poesi2020
  • ✶ Interdependence: Stockholm and pandemia2020
  • Future Architecture Rooms2020
  • SOFT GOSSIP2020
  • Mukbang Veneziano2020
  • Körper2019
  • Architecture on Display2018
  • Boxen at ArkDes2018
  • The Stones of Venice: A Kimono2017
  • Misunderstandings (A Reliquary)2016
III.Publications
  • ✶ softspot2021
  • Living on Water2017
  • Elemental Living2016
  • People, Place, Purpose2015
IV.Speaking
  • ✶ Scaffold #612022
  • Salons, The New Architecture School2022
  • ✶ Protagonist of the Erotic: A Bed2022
  • OAT Academy, Curating Architecture2022
  • ✶ Protagonist of the Erotic: An Island2021
  • A Future for Exhibitions2021
  • Future Architecture CEx2020 Focus Talks2020
  • Modevisningar är den flyktigaste formen av arkitektur2018
  • Exhibition Models2017
V.Writing
  • Studio Ossidiana on the Sentimental Scale of the City2022
  • Wang & Söderström: Royal Chambers2022
  • A Strange Sort of Weight2021
  • What’s Mine Is Theirs: an interview with Max Lamb2020
  • ✶ Screen Glow Sedation2020
  • No Time to Stand and Stare2020
  • On Norra Tornen2020
  • ✶ Don’t Fear a Snowflake2020
  • In Riga, A Conference On Architecture and Migration2019
  • On Practical Futurology2019
  • Foreword: On the Manifesto2019
  • Making Believe with Charlap Hyman & Herrero2019
  • ✶ To Speak As If In Capital Letters2019
  • Baltoscandia: A Complex Utopia2018
  • ✶ Virgil Abloh, Editor in Brief2018
  • A Weak Monument2018
  • Sigurd Lewerentz: Villa Edstrand2018
  • On the Cruising Pavilion2018
  • A Diary of Virgil Abloh’s First Louis Vuitton Show2018
  • ✶ The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied.2018
  • Concrete Mountain2017
  • ✶ On Liquid Modernity2017
  • ✶ #003399, #FFCC00; The Meaning of a Flag2017
  • Pillars of Society: “Jantelagen”2017
  • Exhibiting the Postmodern2017
  • Future Architecture and the Idea of Europe2017
  • Domains of Influence2017
  • Ingress: Black Rock City2017
  • In Dialogue With Gravity2017
  • Rem, Redacted2016
  • Media States, Or The State of Media2016
  • A Piece of England to Call One’s Own2016
  • Upon This Rock (I Will Build My Church)2016
  • The Design of the Species2016
  • Venice Isn’t Sinking, It’s Flooding2016
James Taylor-Foster
editor & writer of essays & reviews,
architectural designer,
maker of exhibitions
Selected writing 2015 – 2022
Curatorial
  • ✶ Solicited: Proposals 2021
  • with Esther Choi, Jia Yi Gu, Gilly Karjevsky and Rosario Talevi, Vasif Kortun, Prem Krishnamurthy, Maria Lind, Federico Martelli, Mpho Matsipa, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Molemo Moiloa, Shirley Surya, Anna Livia Friel, Marco Provinciali, Mika Savela, Lev Bratishenko, Melanija Grozdanoska, Maria McLintock, Space Popular, Civil Architecture for ArkDes + e-flux Architecture
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Fig 1. Elements of the Exhibition. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

What happens in an architecture exhibition? What, and who is it for? What does it do, and how does it do it?

Solicited: Proposals is a shared effort to parse the architecture exhibition, to untangle and rethink its meaning and its potential for today. Through the lens of a single element, each contribution seeks to reimagine the architecture exhibition: what it allows for and does not allow for; what it enables, what it disables; what it constructs and deconstructs.

Reimagining the architecture exhibition

The exhibition is a crucial format for representation and reflection. Architecture exhibitions speak to both disciplinary and non-disciplinary, local and non-local concerns, creating a dialogue and offering the potential to strengthen both. In positioning ideas and objects in dialogue, presenting them for scrutiny and debate, they create spaces of togetherness, of considered dissent, of understanding.

The relevance of architecture exhibitions is constantly changing, and they are worth continual reconsideration. Solicited: Proposals seeks to frame freethinking within challenges that are older than today and that could feed into questions around what institutions are, could, can, and should be. It informs ongoing work in rethinking the rooms, experiences, and curatorial approaches currently underway at ArkDes in Stockholm.

Elements of the exhibition

An exhibition is a complex machine of both tangible and intangible moving parts, each of which are possible avenues into considering and radically rethinking what makes them both useful and relevant.

This project begins with nine elements that constitute exhibitions: the seating, the collection, the timeframe, the object list, the threshold, the outdoors, the queue, the budget, and the interpretation. There are a practically endless number of elements, however. Consider: the list of participants, the plinth, the ten-minute tour, the press release, the object list, the title, the caption, the opening hours, the cappuccino, the locker, the ticket, the collection, the greeting, the livestream, the no-touch sign, the comment card, the website, the brochure, the automatic door, the threshold, the gift shop, the publication, the bathroom, the bench, the Wi-Fi, the security, the agreement, the pitch, the biography, the outdoors, the translation, the surveillance camera, the queue, the maximum capacity, the risk assessment…

The Seating: Maria Lind

Fig 2. The Seating by Maria Lind. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Collection: Shirley Surya

Fig 3. The Collection by Shirley Surya. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Timeframe: Prem Krishnamurthy

Fig 4. The Timeframe by Prem Krishnamurthy. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Object List: Federico Martelli

Fig 5. The Object List by Federico Martelli. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Threshold: Vasif Kortun

Fig 6. The Threshold by Vasif Kortun. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Outdoors: Gilly Karjevsky and Rosario Talevi +

Fig 7. The Outdoors by Gilly Karjevsky and Rosario Talevi. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Queue: Mpho Matsipa, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Molemo Moiloa

Fig 8. The Queue by Mpho Matsipa, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Molemo Moiloa. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Budget: Jia Yi Gu

Fig 9. The Budget by Jia Yi Gu. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Interpretation: Esther Choi

Fig 10. The Interpretation by Esther Choi. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Brief: Anna Livia Friel, Marco Provinciali

Fig 11. The Brief by Anna Livia Friel and Marco Provinciali. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Caption: Mika Savela

Fig 12. The Caption by Mika Savela. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Weather: Lev Bratishenko, Melanija Grozdanoska

Fig 13. The Weather by Lev Bratishenko and Melanija Grozdanoska. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Moment: Maria McLintock

Fig 14. The Moment by Maria McLintock. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Guide: Space Popular

Fig 15. The Guide by Space Popular. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.

The Horizon: Civil Architecture

Fig 16. The Horizon by Civil Architecture. Illustration: Andreas Samuelsson / Agent Molly & Co. Commissioned by ArkDes.


Editors Nick Axel and Nikolaus Hirsch (e-flux Architecture) James Taylor-Foster (ArkDes) Illustration Andreas Samuelsson/Agent Molly&Co.
Solicited: Proposals is a project initiated by ArkDes and e-flux Architecture, and published between October and December 2021. Following an open call, additional contributions were published between February and March 2022.
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