Photo courtesy: The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo and ROM for kunst og arkitektur.
An exhibition is (like) a catalogue, (like) a text, (like) a system of signs, (like) a film, (like) a script, (like) a gesture, (like) a ritual, (like) a shopping mall for culture, (like) a discourse, (like) a narrative, (like) an essay, (like) scenography, (like) another world, (like) a spatial media, (like) theatre, (like) an environment, (like) a designed object, (like) an artwork, (like) gesamtkunstwerk, (like) a problem space, (like) a learning arena, (like) a community of matters of concern, (like) a vehicle for participation, (like) a research communication platform, (like) a gathering of commons, (like) immersive encounters that engage the viewer’s body, senses, and emotions.
Depending on what an exhibition aims to achieve and the processes it seeks to instigate, an exhibition might resemble many things. Its institutional (or non-institutional) contexts, as well as the knowledges and practises it involves, shapes and engenders ways of acting, thinking, sensing and making.
The editors of this Open Call have collaborated over the past four years to explore fundamental questions related to exhibitions and their contexts. Through a seminar series in six parts, invited speakers from various fields (such as artists, architects, researchers, curators, conservators, technicians) shared their thoughts on the exhibition as shared experiences of production and perception. One insight from this long-term process is the apparent lack of a common understanding and terminology to describe the work involved in exhibitions. This often leads to confusion and misinterpretation regarding the objectives and methods of creating exhibitions inside institutions. Björn Nilsson, an archaeologist and Head of Department at Bergen University Museum, added a comment in the margin of the working document for this Open Call: “Can an increased divide between different exhibition formats be seen as the museum sector becomes broader in purpose and place in society?” Researcher and curator Karoline Kjesrud replied: “Perhaps the artist's perspective on how an exhibition is created can be helpful for identifying the fundamental aspects for exhibition production in larger museums. Conversely, perhaps the museums' perspective on the exhibition being a medium for preservation and accessibility could be relevant to artistic practice?” Curator and gallery director Gjertrud Steinsvåg responded with the comment: “I still think it is crucial to raise the question of why curators, artists, museums, architects, historians, designers, and institutions that explore immaterial topics make exhibitions at all.”
Yet, a significant difference among fields concerns not only what constitutes an exhibition and why it is made, but also how it relates to working processes and methods.
Late 19th-century museum exhibitions, rooted in natural sciences, archaeological, and art historical disciplines, primarily served as visualizations of methodology. They were a part of the research process and represented a form of spatial knowledge production in their own right. In contrast, many exhibitions today are often perceived as the final stage of a working process. However, both the art field and museum institutions have begun to create exhibitions that strive to go beyond mere endpoints; scenography and dramaturgy can contribute to the creation of dynamic, interactive platforms for dialogical knowledge exchange, acknowledging emotions and diverse perspectives while transforming sensory experiences into reflective insights. Yet the knowledges and practises involved in exhibition-making can also spark new, unanticipated connections and contexts, not only for visitors but also for exhibition-makers — and their methods.
If the exhibition is considered a starting point rather than an endpoint, what is it a starting point for? If the exhibition is a method, what is it a method for? What else can we discover if we venture beyond conventional notions of how and why exhibitions matter? How can we write about, think about, and make sense of exhibition as method?
This Open Call invites participants to explore issues and approaches related to exhibition as method through their own artistic, academic, curatorial, or architectural research practices. We invite scholars and practitioners to engage with an idea, theme, hypothesis, or challenge and explore it in their own unique way, enabling a transparent exchange of ideas across disciplines. We welcome all forms of artistic research, alongside more traditional written formats, whether historical or theoretical.
We seek experimental essays that are intellectually rigorous, visually compelling, methodologically innovative, and grounded in thorough primary research. We encourage a cohesive research framework driven by co-creation, where theorists and practitioners work closely together in the conceptualization, writing process, and visual experimentation. We encourage co-writing and collective working methods. Most importantly, we are looking for participants who are interested in in-depth development of their ideas and experiments, with feedback and co-working in a creative community over an extended period.
“Exhibition as Method” is a collaborative project between Metode, The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, and The University Museum in Bergen. The editors are Karoline Kjesrud (The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo), Björn Nilsson (The University Museum in Bergen), and Ingrid Halland (Metode). The Editorial Board consists of Victoria Bugge Øye (curator at The National Museum), Hanne Hammer Stien (professor of art history and theory at The Academy of Arts, UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Petrine Vinje (artist and researcher), Gunhild Mathea Husvik-Olaussen (artist and researcher at The Oslo National Academy of the Arts), and Gustav Jørgen Pedersen (Head of Research at MUNCH).
