In 2013, 59 worked with Real Studios to design the David Bowie Is exhibition for the V&A Museum. The collaboration marked a departure for the V&A – this is the first time that a production company from the world of theatre and opera has been invited to lead the design of an exhibition for the museum.
The design of the exhibition drew influence from Bowie’s myriad artistic influences: Surrealism, Expressionism, the Beat Poets, Cabaret and Kabuki Theatre amongst many others. Over the course of a year-long period of research and development, 59’s Mark Grimmer led the design process, working closely with Real Studios’ Mike Hawkes, interpreting and expanding upon the brief provided by the exhibition’s curators, Geoff Marsh and Victoria Broackes.
“The idea was to combine the curators’ intellectual approach to Bowie as a cultural taste-maker with an aesthetic that was theatrical, informed by visual material that we knew to have been influential for Bowie. In that sense, the exhibition design is both an expression of Bowie the artist, and a reflection of his own process of cultural appropriation and re-imagination”, explains Mark.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
MIS, Sao Paulo
Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
MCA, Chicago
Philharmonie de Paris
ACMI, Melbourne
Groninger Museum, Groningen
MAMbo, Bologna
Warehouse Terrada G1, Tokyo
Museu del Disseny, Barcelona