Skeiv
Pride & Prejudice
2021–2022
Introduction
Pride and Prejudice is the most comprehensive exhibition on queer cultural history in Norway to date and was central to the National Library's program for Queer Cultural Year in 2022 (Skeivt kulturår 2022). Snøhetta developed the exhibition design in close collaboration with the National Library of Norway.
Technical details
Extensive work
The National Library did extensive work for over a year to map material related to the exhibition theme with appointed curator and author Bjørn Hatterud. The exhibition was not a linear, complete, or chronological story but instead showed a myriad of odd stories from different times and different parts of the collection of material. The exhibition was part of a larger celebration of what is being called the "Year of Queer Culture 2022", which several cultural institutions across the country commemorated.
With more than 400 books, magazines, newspaper clippings, letters, manuscripts, diaries, sketches, pictures, films, melodies, and video and audio recordings, Pride and Prejudice is the most widespread exhibition set up at the National Library. The material provides various insights into how Norwegian society has behaved towards queer love and how this attitude has changed and developed over time.
Widely recyclable
The temporary nature of the exhibition demands a particularly strong focus on sustainability. By primarily choosing scaffolding, textile banners and constructions in Re-board corrugated board, we created an exhibition that is widely recyclable.
The vast amount of objects and broad variation of sizes and shapes also made the flexibility of materials a central element. Different qualities of the textile banners contribute to the richness of the experience by adding transparency and a custom visual backdrop for each of the thematic hubs in the exhibition. The strong and varied coloristic design gives life to the exhibits and contrasts the older material in a respectful but playful way.
Spatial situations through the stories
The exhibition at the National Library was held in The Microfilm Hall, a protected room with great qualities but also clear limitations. Snøhetta was invited to be the exhibition architect and deliver graphic expressions consisting of an exhibition profile and visual surfaces to disseminate text and images. The task was to provide the exhibition with a spatial solution to showcase the cultural-historical material in a dignified and exciting way for the public.
The Microfilm Hall has a good height and is covered with panels on the walls that are worthy of preservation. Not getting to these walls for the exhibition material was a big challenge. Snøhetta chose a solution where traditional scaffolding with steel pipe construction was installed to build up the exhibition. In this way, the audience could move freely around the rooms around the free-standing frames where the exhibition was displayed. The scaffolding became elements where one could use all sides and establish spatial situations through the stories.
A holistic backdrop
All displays were built up in sandwich cardboard, folded, and built up to place objects and pictures and show the film. These displays had two different heights, but the same design for the exhibition to have a holistic backdrop.
For the graphic part, it was natural to choose the rainbow palette. Giant banners were colored thematically to give a hue to convey the different stories. Emphasis was placed on clarifying colors, text, and headings, making it exciting and easy to read. The font used was Aperçu by Colophon.
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