The redesigning of the Galleries of the Decorative Arts and Design sets quite unusual guidelines, our agency is rather used to temporary exhibitions and to stimulating constraints (of space, deadline...). But the perpetuity of a Fine Arts Museum, that’s an offer you can’t refuse! In Montreal, the constraint is elsewhere, and we are given the one which is common in rich collections displayed on three levels. Staircases in an exhibition are a major impediment to fluidity and progression of the path. But rather than adopt a passive response to those constraints, we are accepting them and imagine a very strong link, able to climb smoothly the different floors and to connect them. A huge red ribbon takes hold of the space, winds from floor to ceiling, seems to pass through the walls and cuts its way through the collections. It becomes a fully independent object, while at the same time remaining a medium that we fold with the passing eras and influences related to the collections. Our bold ambition “to bring back design into Design” is properly understood in Montreal, where the concept of heritage and the “fine arts” label free themselves rather well from the weight of tradition.

The Montreal Museum of Fine ArtsPermanent14y 06d 02h 46m 24s

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Permanent
14y 06d 02h 46m 24s