Tate Britain changes the approach to exposure

LONDON. Tate Britain Gallery decided to revise its approaches to the formation of permanent and temporary museum exhibits.

The gallery is located in Milbank, one of the districts of London and was built by Sydney Smith in 1897 in the form of a quadrant. Walking along the long corridors of the building, visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with its exposition. The new concept of the gallery provides a chronological approach to the placement of the museum collection, which will turn an ordinary walk into a “real time travel”.

Here is how Tel Britain director Penelope Curtis commented: “Our goal is to create a sense of time flow, to make it clear to our viewers how art has changed from the sixteenth century to the present day. A number of new collections will be introduced into the exposition.

There is nothing new in this technique. Nevertheless, the thematic construction of expositions predominates in modern museums - this approach has become especially popular in the last two to three decades. We always adhered to a combined approach: thematic collections were more or less inscribed in the chronological outline. However, despite the illusion of some constancy, all museums change, often in a recognizable-cyclical manner. What we do in 2013 reflects key aspects of earlier times. The fact is that the wealth of the collection makes us carefully select items for display. The timeline was used as a more neutral selection method, and using this search tool, we managed to create a combination of works that, we hope, will surprise our viewer.

The chronological schemes provide the external framework of the museum, however, the particular content can change its focus. Most of all I would like to think that this more holistic approach will help visitors to understand the continuity in art, the relationship of the old and the new.

It will be possible to evaluate the innovation starting from May 13.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru