2013 OCEAN : MATERIAL

Exhibition Design for Sklena Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

Project Team: Pavel Hladik, Michael U. Hensel, Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel

The scheme for the OCEAN exhibition at Sklenar Gallery in Prague explores the themes of screens and niches, as well as modulated transparency, as a strategy for experimental exhibition design. This is informed by OCEAN research on historical screenwalls, especially the cut-out stucco muqarnas of the music chamber in the Ālī Qāpū Palace in Isfahan, and the material experiments conducted in OCEAN’s Barely project.

OCEAN : Material – Exhibition Design: perspectival plan of the exhibition spaces

The two gallery spaces are organized as a looped circulation by screen-walls and walls with inset niches, as well as by transparent walls with printed and milled images.

OCEAN : Material – Exhibition Design: screen-walls

One type of screenwalls is articulated as thick walls that feature openings and niches that allow for different views of exhibits. The views are additionally altered by changing backlight conditions.

OCEAN : Material – Exhibition Design: translucent screen design offering layered views that alter with changing light conditions

The second type of screens will be made from transparent sheet material feature printed and milled images that appear as floating immaterial figures. The effect is enhanced by changing light conditions ranging from daylight to artificial lighting via UV-lights.