Emily Vassallo Medici

Gallery 0 is the first self-organised common space within the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK). 

Developed in response to the absence of a shared space within the academy, the project explores how underused spaces, materials, and social relations can be activated through collective participation.

Rather than proposing a finished design, Gallery 0 functions as an evolving framework shaped by its users. 

Through a series of collective acts, the project explores how trust, care, and collective memory can transform an anonymous space into a common place.

Existing materials, waste streams, and the diverse knowledge of students, staff, technicians, and other members of the academy become resources for the continuous development of the space. 

In doing so, Gallery 0 questions traditional notions of authorship and proposes a model of spatial production based on care, collaboration, and shared responsibility.

Conceived as a project in progress, Gallery 0 is less a designed object than an invitation: a platform through which a community can collectively imagine, construct, and sustain its own common place.

Gallery 0 was shaped through the contributions, knowledge, care and participation of many people within the KABK community. Its first steps were initiated by Emily Vassallo Medici (BA IAFD) and Stella Kechagioglou (MA Inside) in 2026.

Gallery 0 can be visited in the space behind the KABK canteen. Research and methodology related to the project can also be viewed in the BA IAFD studio.