From Tallinn to Leiden

The exhibition previously ran in Tallinn, same content, very different building. Museum De Lakenhal's two white-walled rooms don't lend themselves to the same layout, so Walter went back to the drawing board and started dividing the space with large volumes instead. Think of it as an XXL building block set. One that happens to be taller than most of the people walking through it.

From sketch to space

We took Walter's maquettes and sketches and rebuilt every shape in 3D. From there it became a group project: us, Walter, The Phoebus Foundation and Aorta (the art handling partner responsible for the actual artworks) going back and forth until every proportion sat exactly right.

We used our expertise to engineer and build the large volumes and balls, while Aorta built the pedestals for the artworks.

Simple shapes are never simple

Colour and material got the same close attention, all tuned together with Walter until it was, in his words, topnotch. Funnily enough, the simplest-looking shapes gave us the most grief. A cylinder or a cone sounds easy until you actually have to build one that's perfectly round, or perfectly faceted, with nowhere to hide a mistake.

Scale is what really sells the space. Walk under a four-metre cone and you suddenly remember how small you actually are.

Reading the room

The final lineup: large EPS spheres, smooth cones done both in lacquered colour and in veneer, faceted cones finished in veneer, and three four metre high lacquered cylinders. Walk under the archway and a soundscape kicks in, along with the scent of flowers (for which we integrated a custom scent machine), one Walter created himself. We also produced a custom carpet, four metres in diameter, in a Pantone colour Walter specifically picked to match the colour scheme of the exhibition.

Matching that colour scheme across materials is one of the trickiest parts of any scenography project. The same green looks completely different in lacquer than it does in fabric. For a project like this, we go the extra mile to get every material aligned, working through colour swatches and physical samples until lacquer, veneer and textile all read as the same colour in the room.

Everything went up on site, piece by piece, until two empty white rooms turned into something you have to walk into small to understand.

Garden of Delights – The Seventeenth Century in Bloom is on view now at Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden.

Photography credits @Joep Jacobs for Museum De Lakenhal