The exhibition as essay. Exhibition production as research process (original) (raw)
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INTRODUCTION Exhibitions as research
Exhibitions As Research: Experimental Methods in Museums, 2020
This volume argues that museum exhibitions can eff ectively work as a particular way of doing research, a way of exploring the world around us rather than mirroring it. More than that, while this may not at fi rst glance seem to be a particularly revolutionary statement, we contend that, if taken seriously, it does shake a number of the basic pillars of museum practice. If the exhibition is research and not merely a way of communicating research, a number of questions arise: Can we exhibit something, which we do not know the end result of, which is still in the making? Which concepts of "knowledge" apply to such a format? How do we conceive of the roles between the partakers in an exhibition process if this is not a matter of giving shape to a given content? How do we conceive of the role of audiences in exhibitions if research is extended into the exhibition itself? Why, indeed, should we even think of exhibitions as research rather than as a platform to communicate the results of research to a wider audience? These are all questions that we will touch upon in the volume. The idea of exhibitions as research Museums and exhibitions have increasingly been referred to as "laboratories" (MOMA, 2014 ; Heller, Scholz and Wegner, 2015 ; Treimo, this volume; J ø rgensen, this volume) or "experiments", respectively (Healy and Witcomb, 2006 ; Macdonald and Basu, 2007). These terms point to a move away from understanding the museum as a site for representing the world to perceiving the museum, instead, as an agent that produces its own particular eff ects. The museum does not simply mirror the world, but constructs new perspectives and ideas that are generated through the particular mechanisms and qualities of the very institution (Bjerregaard and Willerslev, 2016 , pp. 226-235; Thomas, 2016 , p. 9). One eff ect of this approach to museums has been a focus on the capacity of exhibitions to generate research in and through themselves (Macdonald and Basu, 2007 ; Lehman-Brauns, Sichau and Trischler, 2010 ; Herle, 2013 ; O'Neill and Wilson, 2015). Working intensely with collections, testing ideas out in a physical environment, and relating more or less directly to a lay audience does not only tell us something new about how to make exhibitions, but may also provide us with more insight into the subject matter of the exhibition. That is, the exhibition has the potential to create a research surplus ; through the making of exhibitions we are liable to learn more about the topic of the exhibition. But, as we will explore further 9781138646063_pi-194.indd 1 9781138646063_pi-194.indd 1
EXHIBITION MAKING AS AESTHETIC ENQUIRY
Exhibitions As Research: Experimental Methods in Museums, 2020
If exhibitions are research what kind of scientifi c thinking do they make space for? And what are the eff ects of this kind of research?
Places And Themes Of Interiors Contemporary Research Worldwide. Peressut Basso, L. et al (eds.) Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008
Exhibitions as research, i.e. research conducted through the practice of making exhibitions where exhibitions are used as laboratories for experimentation with relations between viewers and objects in the production of knowledge is the focus of this paper. Exhibitions will be addressed as interior designs – defined as an ensemble/assemblage/composition of relations between things – with the potential to produce new encounters and subjectivities. As such the question raised in the Interiors Forum World call for papers ‘what will be the role of the visitors/spectators in the future?’ will be central to this paper and the value of approaching exhibitions as spaces of experimentation on our selves – as research.
RESEARCHERS, CURATORS AND DESIGNERS: THE EXHIBITIONS AS THE SPACE FOR COLLABORATIONS
Culture Crossroads, 2023
The article looks at thematic exhibitions that explore certain cultural and historical processes and examines the specifics of the exhibition as a collaborative process between three actors: academic researchers, curators and designers. Such exhibitions, grounded in cultural aspects and built on academic research outcomes, differ from classic art displays in the sense that they lack artworks that “speak for themselves”. Moreover, the research often is based on the written word and original documents or artefacts that are visually uninteresting/non-appealing or monotonous. On this account, the exhibition’s story and visual form is put in the hands of the curator and designer. Does this vital role give designers and curators the authority to rework the research that underlies the narrative? Is the design applied as the exhibit itself ? To answer these questions and to explore artistic research in the context of exhibitions, this article discusses the exhibitions carried out at the National Library of Latvia. The article looks behind the exhibition production process to examine the collaboration methods employed by the creative teams consisting of researchers, curators and designers.
The Exhibition: A Space of Experience or Interpretation?
Art exhibitions have been the topic of discussion for many centuries. It is an artistic environment that has been continuously redeveloped and moulded to the needs of the public. This research will focus on the exhibition as a separate space from the gallery. A more intimate environment reemerges, allowing one to connect not only to the art displayed inside but also to the stories, memories, and imaginations that unfold in such a space. Art museums are closely intertwined with social change. In a way, it is growing alongside society; therefore, a constant focus on its function and delivery is vital to stay alive. The study of the experiences and interpretations in exhibitions is significant to the overall structure of artistic spaces. With new inventions emerging with each passing day, new opportunities for artistic display arise. The question demonstrated in this body of work aims to determine whether the space should be solely experienced or is interpretation also required to be considered an adequate artistic space.
Manifesto: Towards a Historical Critique of Exhibitions
2015
Introduction Literary critics write book reviews about new novels. Art critics review works of art and the exhibitions they are presented in. Exhibition critiques, however, seem to be much less developed. 1 In most popular reviews, most attention is usually paid to the shape, architecture and function of the building, rather than to the actual contents of the exhibition (a notable example being the reviews on the new Dutch Military Museum 2 ). In other instances, reviews are echoes of the press releases of the organising institutions, or evaluations of the accompanying marketing message. If they do go beyond that, they tend rely on specific disciplines such as art history. One might expect academic reviews to provide some much needed in-depth criticism. However, museums and exhibitions rarely receive substantial coverage in academic journals. Although we do find theoretical reflection on museum exhibitions, especially in the case of ethnographic museums and exhibitions, it often sto...
Postmodern Exhibition Discourse: Anthropological Study of an Art Display Case
CITAR Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts, 2015
The article studies tendencies in contemporary museum exhibitions and art display trends. While analysing current status quo of art in the museum context, it discusses the limitations of curatorial impact on the audience perception of the displayed objects. The paper presents a case study of a permanent museum exhibition with an added performance element. As argued in the article, such approach allows a stratified narrative and provokes a dialogue between the audience, performers, and curators, fully reflecting postmodern polyphonic tendency. The aim of the article is to comment on postmodern trends in museology, the status of the displayed art (object), and contemporary exhibition identity.
The Exhibition: Histories, Practices, Policies
Revista de História da Arte, 2019
The Revista de História da Arte n. 14 addresses the “exhibition” not only as an object of study but mainly as a prolific problem. This theme is here covered through various lenses, underlining how the exhibition is a vital topic to many interdisciplinary and interrelated research fields that deal with museums, art, culture and diplomacy.
MA thesis in Museology and Cultural Heritage Studies, 2020
Environmental challenges with its social and political impact and relevance have increasingly manifested itself in the cultural sphere, including in museums and the study of them. This thesis explores how an art museum presents environmental issues through a contemporary art exhibition. In museological literature focused on issues such as climate change, engaging with art is pointed out to have unexplored potential. However, art museums have their own characteristics rooted in ideals, traditions, and ambitions that affect how they approach presentation of environmental topics. Thus, in my research I have aimed to investigate the possibilities and challenges caused by such characteristics when engaging with environmental issues in an exhibition of contemporary art, as well as how ideas of the communicative capacities of contemporary artworks affect how the topic is presented. These aspects are inspected through an exhibition analysis of the exhibition Tomorrow is the Question shown at ARoS - Aarhus Art Museum, including an interview with a representative from the curatorial team. I have used the concepts of the discursive and the immersive, including notions of atmospheres, to study the exhibition. Further, characteristics of the art museum, presented in a dilemma between social engagement and aesthetic contemplation, are applied to discuss the analytical findings. While this thesis is a museological study, as the art played such a central role for the museum’s presentation of the subject it addressed, I have included some theoretical approaches to analyze a selection of the artworks in environmental perspectives. Based upon the analysis and the discussions of key findings, I suggest that the artworks are proposed to be the main components to communicate about the exhibition theme, and that the other exhibition elements were to facilitate for this. Further, I argue that the use of discursive and immersive approaches to exhibition making show parallels to the dilemma of social engagement and aesthetic contemplation, making it challenging for art museums to provide necessary contextualization of the artworks inside the exhibition, and leads to an aim to add this by the use of textual elements outside the exhibition space.