The question of the potentials of including the visitor in the participatory process of the interaction between exhibition space and items on display usually determines the way in which an exhibition is designed. It is a question that any exhibition should address in its organization and arrangement.
The design of this exhibition deals with the experience of the visitor as an active participant in the exhibition space. Put in somewhat general terms, the layout aims to encourage concentrated participation on the part of the viewer by guiding them through a series of different »ambiences« within the exhibition space itself. The design is based on delineation, the creation of several, smaller ambiences inside a larger space. The rooms can be entered one after the other, similar to the way in which we move between larger rooms through narrow corridors in a residential apartment.
The theme of this residential program derives from the selection of artefacts on display, beginning with the kind of
porcelain used in antechambers, continuing on with porcelain objects intended for daily and sanitary use as well
as those pertaining to a more intimate, bedroom purpose, and then returning back again. The walls forming these
rooms consist of solid brass profiles and use black threads as filling. These walls float above the floor and give the
impression of lightness and transparency. The use of thread alludes to one of the first methods by which clay vessels
were decorated: thread was imprinted into fresh clay in order to create a specific, ornamental texture.
The design of the exhibition prevents the viewer from rushing uninterested through its content and missing out on the historical insight on offer. It encourages us to be mentally present and by demanding the walk through all of the discrete »ambiences«, it enables an up-close view of some of the most important porcelain objects in the museum’s collection.
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