EM2 Design Studio EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – Art Gallery for Temporary Exhibitions

TOPIC

The field of arts, and its concepts, forms, modes of representations, media, types of exhibition and monetization has undergone unprecedented changes throughout the last decades. However, the typology of the museum has remained remarkably stable since its introduction as a Western cultural concept in the late 19th century. Recent changes in the way in which art is curated, exhibited, discussed, understood and monetized nowadays has called this dated concept into question.

This semester, students are asked to investigate contemporary museological challenges such as innovative curating strategies, hybrid modes of display and presentation, novel artistic practices, or funding and monetization in a changing socio-economic environment and to speculate about their conceptual, programmatic, material, architectural, and spatial implications as a curatorial interface between art production, audience and urban context.

SITE

The historic „Rotunde“ located in Innsbruck’s district Saggen and the former valley station of the old Hungerburgbahn with its bridge across the river Inn will serve as the site for this semester’s design studio. Both building complexes, which are connected by a small plaza, are derelict now. The „Rotunde“ has remained empty since the „Riesenrundgemälde“, the art piece it was especially constructed for in 1906, was moved to a new exhibition space in 2011. The station of the old Hungerburgbahn lost its function in 2005 when the entire cable car system was replaced with the new Hungerburgbahn and has remained unused ever since. Both buildings are listed as national heritage buildings (Denkmalschutz).

These existing buildings of historic importance and the surrounding site at large will be taken as an extensive testing ground to challenge prevailing assumptions about what constitutes an exhibition space with the aim to conceptualise, design, and materialise contemporary museum typologies that reflect the recent profound changes in today’s technological, societal, cultural, and artistic practice. In this process, the existing building configurations are to be examined, evaluated, purposefully dismantled, transformed, adapted, and extended to allow for the materialisation of experimental volumetric exhibition concepts.