Pervasive Exhibitions: Ubiquitous Staging in Contemporary Museums

The paper aims at highlighting the emergence of a pervasive expansion of the staging activities performed by museums today. This analysis outlines one of the topics covered by a ongoing research exploring how the experimentation with new spatial and museographic programs is playing a strategic part in the widely-discussed updates of cultural institutions, challenged by major changes in economic and socio-cultural patterns, communication modes, and cultural production and dissemination processes. In particular, the article addresses the growing spread of display practices beyond the museum galleries, and their integration in a range of different spaces, functions, and formats. This phenomenon is investigated by identifying its origin and evolution, its implications, and the design trends it is generating, with a special focus on visible storages, margins, and circulation spaces, and with the aim to highlight the innovative nature of such ongoing experimentations, that cohere curatorial, archival, display, and communication strategies to enhance contemporary museums’ relationships with present day publics and contexts. This analysis draws on the evidence found in a wealthy selection of realized projects, supported by a set of theoretic references. Considering that the ongoing evolution of cultural institutions is merely investigated through the update of curatorial and audience engagement programs, the exploration of the contribution of museographic innovations within this scenario fills a gap in the existing literature and in the perspectives unfolded so far.