Online Conference | The Exhibition as Interior Tue, 9 May 2023, 10:00 – 17:00 BST
Hosted by The Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University, London
Please register via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-conference-the-exhibition-as-interior-tickets-541124858017
Exhibitions have long been studied by scholars in the fields of art, design, and architectural history and cultural studies. They have, for example, been seen as representations of national or global identities; as communicators of a range of ideologies, from political fascism to Cold War socialism and corporate capitalism; and, most recently as tools for undertaking and sharing research. They have long been understood as having a didactic and/or a commercial function. Very often, however, the focus has been more upon their contents and their narratives than on their design. Very seldom have they been considered as a specific type of constructed interior.
This conference addresses histories, theories, and practices of exhibitions as interiors in a wide range of settings. They could include examples in purpose-built exhibition halls, pavilions, museums, and galleries, or others which temporarily occupy pre-existing structures such as hotels, department stores, transport spaces, heritage sites or private houses. It welcomes papers which consider the whole interior of the exhibition, from the building, the part of a building, or the temporary enclosure in which it is set, to the navigation within it. It embraces research on the spatial, material, and virtual qualities of exhibitions, the sensorial and the performative, as well as the political, social, ecological, and educational. It will also explore the roles and experiences of figures including the exhibition designer, curator, programmer, and exhibition visitor. Exhibitions under review could range from the cultural to the commercial and engage with examples created in both institutional and non-institutional settings, by amateurs and professionals, and through interdisciplinary, collaborative and/or participatory practices.
This new approach towards exhibitions as constructed interiors will open the possibility of engaging with ideas discussed in relation to interiors in general, from interiority to the relationship between the private and the public realms. It will also establish exhibitions as a site for discussion of themes of contemporary relevance, such as decolonisation, gender politics and the climate emergency. Importantly, the conference will also interrogate the consequences of adopting this perspective for contemporary curatorial and exhibition design practices.
Conference Programme:
10.00 Introduction
Session 1: Exhibition spaces as interiors
- 10.20 Jose Vela Castillo (IE University – Segovia and Madrid, Spain) Interior Architecture, Where the Desire (for Modernity) May Live
- 10.30 Kateřina Štroblová (University of Ostrava, Czech Republic) Heart of the City: Exhibition as Total Space
- 10.40 Lia Carreira (University of Southampton) Exhibitions as Laboratories and the Office Work Stations of the 1990s
- 10.50 Trine Friis Sørensen (Aarhus University and Kunsthal Aarhus) Negotiating the White Cube: Textile Interiors
- 11.00-11.30 Panel/Q & A
11.30-11.45 Break
Session 2: Exhibiting Interiors
- 11.45 Laura Ingianni Altmann (Art historian and curator, Munich, Germany) The ‘Home and Technology’ Exhibition in Munich, 1928
- 11.55 Kate Hill (University of Lincoln) ‘Genuine Oak Beams and Rafters’: Historical Reconstructions in Museums, 1930-1960
- 12.05 Cvetka Požar and Maja Vardjan (Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia) Model Apartments and New Culture of Living in Socialist Yugoslavia
- 12.15 Stefan Krämer (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Beyond the Period Room: Reframing the Interior as a Space for Diasporic Narratives
- 12.25 Ben Angwin (PhD candidate, Kingston University, London) From ‘Ideal Home’ to Modern Art Exhibition: Revisiting the Exhibited Interiors of the Omega Workshops
- 12.35 Ashley Paine (The University of Queensland, Australia) A Window on the Museum: Reconstructing the Interiors of Frank Lloyd Wright
- 12.45-1.15 Panel/Q&A
1.15-2.15 Break
Session 3: Commercial interiors as exhibition spaces
- 2.15 Gina Leith (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) Work-watching: Exhibition as a Re-presentation of Existing Distillery Interiors
- 2.25 Stephanie Dieckvoss (PhD candidate, Kingston University, London) The Hotel Room as Art fair Booth, as Interior, as Exhibition
- 2.35 Amy Graham (Sheffield Hallam University) The Space of the Bus: Heritage Interpretation of the Urban Interior
- 2.45 Catriona Quinn (UNSW Sydney) Interior Fantasy: Designing for Migrants in post-war Australia
- 2.55-3.25 Panel/Q&A
3.25 – 3.35 Break
Session 4: Residential interiors as exhibition spaces
- 3.35 Alejandro Campos Uribe (Architect) The Interior, Exhibition of One’s Self: On Architecture, Collecting, and the Everyday
- 3.45 Senem Yildirim (New York University) A Gallery That Does Not Exist: On Furmany Lane Artist Squat and Exhibiting Soviet Art Underground
- 3.55 Imogen Hart (Independent scholar) Craft Exhibitions as Interiors in Inter-war Britain
- 4.05 Karen Shelby (City University of New York) Domestic Interiors and Exhibition Installation: Jan Hoet’s ‘Chambre D’Amis’
- 4.15 Hans-Christian Jensen (University of Southern Denmark, Kolding) Tangible Advice: A Home show in the Periphery of Danish Design in 1953
- 4.25 Gina Hochstein/Andrew Douglas (The University of Auckland, New Zealand) In the Shadow of the Picture Window: A consideration of the Domestic as Counter-Exhibition
- 4.35-5.00 Panel/Q&A
5.00 End
Please note that this event will take place entirely online. A link to the conference will be sent to attendees the week before the event.