showcase landscapes

„How do we experience art in a museum?“

With this question in mind, our interdisciplinary design team, consisting of architects, textile designers and me as an industrial designer, is starting the collaborative exhibition design project with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. For the scenographic staging of the exhibition „zwischen system&intuition: KONKRETE KÜNSTLERINNEN“ we are designing scenographic furniture and showcase landscapes.

Recurring shapes and colours are extracted from the exhibited artworks. Further, graphic elements of the exhibited artworks are taken up and translated into a catalogue of colours, shapes and materials to be used in the furniture. The showcases pick up on colour details and clear graphic forms of the exhibited works. The individual showcases, arranged into ensembles, invite visitors to explore the exhibited sculptures. The change of perspective is created by the different heights of the individual showcases and the asymmetrical arrangement of the Plexiglas bonnets on the pedestals.

The exhibition architecture of the designed scenographical furniture and showcase landscapes can be experienced in the context of the exhibition „zwischen system&intuition – Konkrete Künstlerinnen“ from 26.06.2021 to 17.10.2021 in the Cube of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.

Concept Design
Benjamin Rose, Isabella Silva Altemani, Julia Klawitter and Kathrin Alischer.

Design Development and Realisation
Nele Esteban Dettmar, Lucy Ann Guth, Katharina Trilken and Kathrin Alischer.

Supervision
Prof. Veronika Aumann, AM Karin Schulte, Prof. Tobias Walliser. State Academy of Fine Arts and Design Stuttgart.

The core of my work as an industrial designer within this interdisciplinary group project lies in art direction, concept development, colour and material design such as product photography.

To focus on the individual artworks, larger showcases are divided up into showcase landscapes, thus enabling independent observation of the individual items on display. The exhibited objects are placed at different heights and so can be viewed from different perspectives.

The shift in perception due to the change in perspective is further achieved by the displacement of the black socket and the glass case. The asymmetry creates an imbalance that draws attention to the sculpture, which is thus off-centred.

The platforms are made of anthracite-coloured wooden material and appear to blur with the grey floor of the museum halls. The monochrome blurring of the floor and the platform increases the impression of a monotonous landscape and focuses the visitor’s view towards the sculptures.

Significant repeating forms and colours are extracted from the surrounding paintings and sculptures, graphic elements of the exhibited artworks are taken up and translated into a colour, form and material catalogue for the exhibition furniture. The showcases pick up on colour details and clear graphic forms of the exhibited works. Bands of colour accentuate the base of the glass covers. Some showcases are additionally held together by tension belts.

For the scenographic set-up of the exhibition „zwischen system&intuition: KONKRETE KÜNSTLERINNEN“ we design showcase landscapes together with scenographic furniture. Both the seating elements and the showcases use the colour and shape characteristics of artworks. The coloured tension belts are found both in the pipe benches and as colour accents in the showcases.

Carpet sponsoring @ OBJECT CARPET GmbH

Foam production @ W. Dimer GmbH

Acrylic glass @ kad Kunststoff Acryl Design GmbH

Showcases @ Die Schreinerei MUNY GmbH