MAÏDER HASTOY

Imagine it’s a City is a speculative urban fiction that reimagines the city as both colosseum and arena—a stage where power, politics, and democracy intertwine with ruins of past civilizations. Part technocratic nightmare, part failed utopia, the installation constructs an urban grid complete with infrastructures and ministries, exposing how spaces of power disguise themselves as agoras while flirting with authoritarian visions. Between cynicism and critique, it unfolds as a techno-cultural fable: a theater of democracy rebuilt on the debris of ideology. Visitors are invited to step into this city, navigate its landscape, and take a seat at its very heart.

Maïder Hastoy is a French Basque designer/researcher who graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where she's undertaking Geo-Design post-graduate studies. She launched in July 2025 her practice-based studio called Studio Haustura. Her work focuses mainly on interdisciplinary studies of urban issues and social justice, challenging the ethics and responsibilities of spatial practitioners, but also political and societal structures through a spatial lens.

This work was selected as part of Youngbloods, GOGBOT’s platform highlighting promising recent graduates.