Show about photographers from the National Geographic in Leiden

A revision form the archives of a visit to an exhibit at the Museums Volkenkunde, in Leiden. This is an exhibit about the photographer's eye.  The post tries to illustrate the vision of photography by photographers, and the reaction of visitor to a quite hermetic and intimate atmosphere and lighting.  The list of images, mimics my movements during the visit and conveys the idea of a kind of circular path throughout the rooms, with an impact on the final vision and memories of the visit as if it was decidedly set in a closed bubble to capture the esence of the images and show.

Use of audiovisuals at the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

Review visits to museums after a prolongued period of time is a good exercise for refletion, photographs and videos are the main source for helping the memory to remember and reproduce the experience of the visit.

exterior of the museum

In the post "Indian Jewelry" exhibtion in Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (NL) from last  January, I offered the immediate review of my visit to the temporary exhibit within the museum.  Months after looking ofr some images that would illustrate the use of audioviduals in museums, I have rescued these images from the main rooms of the museum that at that moment were the only ones in the main building showing part of the collection.

one of the entrances to the museum

Other rooms were in renovation.  I am keeping here in the images the sensation of ceremonial darkness that surrounded me during the visit, as well as the blue colored atmosphere that all use of audivovisuals projected in the rooms.

The huge wall-to-wall and panoramic video projections dominate the mise-en-scene and are the most powerful tools used in the display

and serve as an evolving background to the objects in glass cabinets that reflect in different directions the images and the darkness does not prevent from enjoying the beauty of artifacts showed.

Bright colors are used for the labels and panels with texts

And small screens in front of cabinets are used for texts or more audiovisuals,

  

This image from the post Museum Volkenkunde Leiden - collection of hats, shows also the effect produced by the low lights.



All in all, the scenography chosen was powerful and succesful.

Museum Volkenkunde Leiden - collection of hats

Textile hats from the collection of Museum Volkenkunde Leiden.

"Indian Jewelry" exhibtion in Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (NL)

A recent visit to the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, offered a nice surprise in the form of a small exhibit about "Contemporary Indian Jewelry".  The museum is going under renovation and it is due to re-open in fal 2012, therefore the collections/exhibitions on display and amount od spaces open to public are limited.

The exhibit is the part of the museum currently open to public, in the main room dedicated to Asia but in a small space, which is not a problem to offer some substanctial content about the subject.  It is curated by Saskia Konniger, who is researching for the museum about Indian traditions, and has conceived the show after two field trips to several regions in India: Rajasthan (Bikaner and Jaipur) to study the work of goldsmiths. After the trips, her findings has incoporated some new pieces into the museum's collection.

general view of the exhibition

I found the exhibit very appealing, condensed and well presented both in terms of pieces and layout, though the cases where the pieces were shown had too many reflects and the quality of craftmanship was at times difficult to be appreciated.

Panels and labels and auviovisuals were instructive, as well as the wall covered by photos and images from (we must guess) the researcher's travels together with and local iconography.  That was a touch of artistic connection with the pieces shown that converged with the anthropological vision, as an inmersion into some aspects of Indian culture.

The catalogue contains good visual documentation, but (as informed from the museum's desk) it has only been published in Dutch, which from a quick reading is a pit,y for it surely contains valuable information that would allow to better understand the content of the exhibition.

Images of some of the pieces on display: