Olga Treivas has told the ‘Dialogue of Arts’ magazine about her experience in exhibition design and museum architecture. We call this text a ‘manifesto of white walls’. Actually we keep revisiting it to remind ourselves about the importance of balance in architect’s work.
‘Since the first exhibition project we have treated artwork superior to architecture. Nevertheless, we have designed some elaborate and highly decorative solutions, mostly for exhibitions with documents. That was around 2012. Since then a lot of new architecture studios have been choosing similar architecture for exhibitions — we thought that we have accidentally opened Pandora’s Box. Now there is hardly any exhibition that is organized without architect. When you come to a museum, you immediately ask who is the architect. Elaborate arches and quirky fantastic props are catching the visitor’s eye faster than art. They even gain more likes on Instagram.
Architecture influences how we perceive art and the architect has to be aware of it. Deliberately architecture-heavy exhibitions are possible, but they are not the only option available. Thoughtful simplicity of background moves the accent from architect’s ambitions to artworks.
Now when the concentration of solutions is so extraordinary high, we would like to ask museums to ‘breathe out’ and try not to engage architect when it is possible. White walls are very becoming to the most exhibitions’
— Olga Treivas
