Beyond And Behind The Scenes Of The Exhibition

With the prosperity and development of China’s museum industry,the number of exhibitions continues to grow,and the research on exhibitions as the object has increased.However,the current research is more limited to the writing,interpretation and evaluation of exhibitions as final products,and ignores the value of exhibitions as processes for practical enlightenment and theoretical research.Based on this,the author adopts the exhibition perspective as a process and the museum ethnographic method,and takes the exhibition"Meeting Shanda,Remembering Qingdao" as a research case to carry out the writing from behind-the-scenes production to beyond-the-scenes presentation and consumption.In order to truly and comprehensively describe the rheology of the entire exhibition and the complexity,contingency and compromise behind it,realize the experience sharing,scholarship and problem-making of the museum’s daily work.Under this idea,this article will expand from the following aspects:First of all,the whole process behind the scenes of the exhibition production is revealed from the perspective of an insider.The curation began with the selection of the exhibition theme after the double verification of theory and reality,and after losing the top-down assistance of the official department,the collection of exhibits went through ups and downs,and finally the exhibition was constructed and set up in the intertwined content planning and formal design.Instead of following the traditional and abstract procedural exhibition production process,the curatorial scene is reproduced in the form of "storytelling",revealing the problems and solutions in the curatorial process,and also showing that the exhibition is the product of continuous negotiation and even compromise under the influence of multiple subjects.Secondly,the opening,presentation effect and audience consumption of the exhibition hall space in direct contact with the audience,that is,beyond the scenes of the exhibition.From the opening ceremony,which symbolizes the new life stage of the exhibition,to the presentation of the exhibition as the final product,the exhibition as a process is used to reveal the inner story behind it,and realize the profound interpretation of the exhibition in the dual depiction of the explicit and the implicit.This is followed by the consumption of the exhibition from the three aspects of visiting behavior,experience and feedback.Finally,based on the reflexive thinking of the exhibition process,it condenses into three discussions on the common problems of museums.Firstly,the two pairs of contradictions behind the collection of exhibits and cooperation with design companies are revealed and analyzed,the tendency of exhibitions to focus on stories rather than material is clarified,and the unity of content and form in the curatorial mode of formal design outsourcing is explored.Then,based on the experience of this exhibition,the operation path of teaching exhibitions with contemporary themes was sorted out and summarized,and the dual significance of cultural and museum talent training and museums.This research explores the two methods of exhibition research on exhibition as process and museum ethnography from the dual perspective of subject and guest,aiming to highlight the importance of paying attention to,excavating and reflecting on the dynamic practice behind exhibitions,so as to inspire new changes in writing exhibition methods.