set now

The exhibition “set now — exhibit exhibition” shows the research results and insights of the “new exhibition design” within the frame of the Master thesis of Vanessa Kiefert and Eric Fritsch at the edi — Exhibition Design Institute at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. The editorial work on the third edition of the book series New Exhibition Design, edited by Uwe J. Reinhardt and Philipp Teufel, gave occasion for the manifold discussion with the medium exhibition. The research on the “new exhibit” continued with the Exhibition Design Reader, a collection of classical and contemporary literature on exhibition theory, as well as the symposium “entweder oder. sowohl als auch. dazwischen.” with international guest speakers and representatives of various disciplines in dialogue about new trends and tendencies within exhibition design.

Show or exhibit? “Set now” reflects and documents the status quo of exhibition design. As defined by applied research, spatial and creative quotations, as well as interviews with renowned architects, designers, curators, artists and scientists, make the exhibition multi-faceted and comprehensible. Instead of a pedestal, a table or a display case, building materials and storage technology are de-contextualized and “misused” in order to emphasize the process of exhibiting. The exhibition architecture is closely related to material descriptions, standards and guidelines. The relationship with space, object and text refers to the work of the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers, who, with word-image relations, language images and pictorial language, signs and names, questioned the role of the museum and the art business in the seventies.
René Magritte: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” (“This is not a pipe”)
Marcel Broodthaers: “Ceci n’est pas un objet d’art.” (“This is not a work of art”)
Here and now: Ceci n’est pas une exposition? (This is not an exhibition?)