TOOL : Anne Ancher exhibition

TOOL - Systematizing exhibition design

Navn
Johannes Graff Vallant
Uddannelsesgrad
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Design
Institut
Bygningskunst og Design
Program
Spatial Design
År
2024

TOOL is a spatial exhibition design system, based on reversible components, that challenges the traditional exhibition design aesthetic and material approach, serving as an active implementation tool in the green transition of art institutions. A strategic product design developed and exemplified through translations of former exhibitions at The National Gallery of Denmark (SMK). 

 

Project made in collaboration with Frederikke Sparboom. 

Sponsors: Dinesen, Kjellerup Væveri and Kvadrat.

Introduction
The exhibition industry struggles with significant material waste due to the frequent turnover of temporary exhibitions, often involving bespoke exhibition design being discarded post-exhibition. This proposal addresses the gap between art institutions’ sustainable ambitions and their wasteful production practices, aiming to shift the mindset towards exhibition design and open up for new aesthetic potentials and a more sustainable exhibition practice.

Project Statement
A spatial exhibition design system based on reversible components, that challenges the traditional art display aesthetic and material approach, serving as an active implementation tool in the green transition of art institutions.

Concept
Based on the principle of connecting sheet materials and facilitating a reversible operation in the processes of staging exhibitions. A concept of reusing and reconfiguring both components and sheet materials, and as a result offering a circular alternative to today’s traditional approach to materials in exhibition design and its related material waste.

TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Anna Ancher exhibition at SMK (Photos: SMK Open)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Estate Ferlov Mancoba, Galerie Mikael Andersen, Anders Sune Berg, SMK)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Estate Ferlov Mancoba, Galerie Mikael Andersen, Anders Sune Berg, SMK)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Anders Sune Berg, SMK)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Anders Sune Berg, SMK)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Estate Ferlov Mancoba)
TOOL : Sonja Ferlov Mancoba at SMK (Photo: Estate Ferlov Mancoba)
TOOL : Catrine Raben Davidsen at Rudolph Tegners Museum (Photo: Henrik Sylvest)
TOOL : Catrine Raben Davidsen at Rudolph Tegners Museum (Photo: Henrik Sylvest)
Reversibility: Ability to easily assemble and disassemble without diminishing the material integrity, allowing for reconfiguration, modularity, and reuse. 
TOOL : Component Collection
TOOL : Component Collection

The TOOL Collection consists of brackets and butterflies, in two sizes. Additionally, an Eyelet Butterfly for suspension, Hinged Butterfly for variating angles, and an Adjustable Base for leveling.  The sizes are 40x40x40mm (Bracket L) and 29x29x29mm (Bracket S) and they can attach to sheet materials with a thickness up to 20mm. 

TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
TOOL : Component Collection (Booklet)
An intuitive modular system based on flexibility and scalability, with components that are non-dependent on fixed sheet material dimensions and designed for manual assembly.
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Guide (Booklet)
TOOL : Mockup 1:1
TOOL : Mockup 1:1

The strategy of TOOL addresses the barriers to green transition within art institutions, such as time, economy, and aesthetics. TOOL promotes a sustainable, circular infrastructure for exhibition materials through a rental-based system. It encourages early considerations of recyclability, contemporary and dogmatic aesthetics, and external collaborations. By reusing materials across institutions and ensuring efficient storage, TOOL reduces waste and minimizes environmental impact while enabling an innovative exhibition design aesthetic.


Implementation in current exhibition productions
TOOL is functioning both as a design ‘tool’ in the exhibition design phase and as a construction ‘tool’ when installing and de-installing.

Business Case 
TOOL is developed as an external rental-based company, that with the reversible system can facilitate internal and external circularity of exhibition materials between art institutions, promoting sustainable practices across institutions and temporary exhibitions.

Storage
TOOL enables flat-packed storage and thereby efficient storage management of observed limited storage capacity to prevent deadstock, and materials being discarded post-exhibition. Additionally flat-packed shipping when exhibitions are traveling from one institution to another. 

Det Kongelige Akademi understøtter FN’s verdensmål

Siden 2017 har Det Kongelige Akademi arbejdet med FN’s verdensmål. Det afspejler sig i forskning, undervisning og afgangsprojekter. Dette projekt har forholdt sig til følgende FN-mål