The concept of this first edition of Craft Lab will address the transformative capacity of spaces that certain manifestations of contemporary craftsmanship can achieve, through a selection of creators whose works transcend their individuality, seeking to connect with the environment.
One of the current trends in the field of contemporary craftsmanship is precisely this more experimental evolution in the way it is projected, in which artisans are moving towards a more artistic and creative starting point. While, on the one hand, they preserve the tradition of the material and the technique they master, at the same time they move away from traditional formats and formal repetition in search of a more personal, artistic, and contemporary expression. At the same time, more and more artists and designers are working with artisanal processes and materials, either of their own making or in collaboration with artisans.
This hybridization between craftsmanship, art, and design has driven their works to expand beyond utilitarian or decorative objects into much more unique and complex expressions, both in their execution and in their formal proposal. At times, moreover, they transcend individuality to establish a dialogue with the environment, addressing its ability to transform a space, an interior design, or an architecture, as well as to generate a specific atmosphere. The artisans, firms, artists, and designers selected for the first edition of Craft Lab work on their creations from this perspective, or their work has great potential to bring uniqueness, virtuosity, expressiveness, and spatial richness to an environment.
Curated by
Tachy Mora is a journalist and exhibition curator specialized in design, architecture, and contemporary craftsmanship, as well as their interactions with other disciplines. She has been working as a cultural journalist since 1998, regularly contributing to the Sunday magazine of the newspaper El País since 2006. She has also written regularly or occasionally for media such as Neo2, Icon Design, Diseño Interior, Diario Design, Elle Decoration, Interiores, Visual, Citizen K, Experimenta, or the now-defunct Magazine of El Mundo newspaper, among others.
In 2011, she published the book Artesanía Española de Vanguardia (Lunwerg) with the support of EOI-Fundesarte, which she later turned into an exhibition that toured Spain, the USA, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia between 2013 and 2016. She was also the curator (together with Javier Abio) of the exhibition Madtastic! Fresh Design From Madrid, which was presented in 2013 at the Instituto Cervantes in Milan, as well as the small show Autoexpresiones for the Joya 2020 fair in Barcelona (now Contemporania), which brought together eight designers, artisans, and artists with highly personal pieces.
Her two most recent curatorial projects have been, on the one hand, Scenarios of a Near Future, a foresight project on the design of the domestic environment, which was on view from November 23, 2022, to March 19, 2023, at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània, and was part of the programming of World Design Capital Valencia 2022. On the occasion of this exhibition, she published her second book under the same title, which explores and reflects on the possible changes that housing and its equipment may undergo in the coming years.
On the other hand, the recent retrospective Héctor Serrano: The Journey In-Between. 25 Years Connecting on the trajectory of the 2024 National Design Award winner, which was presented at the Central de Diseño of Matadero Madrid from February 27 to April 27, 2025, as part of the Madrid Design Festival 2025 program.
