Motet Design Group takes as its subject contemporary exhibition design as it relates to changing attitudes toward cultural display, collecting, cultural representation, and the way museums present narratives that include their communities. A philosophy of display inhabits a new thought system that replaces The Power of Display, the title of the 1998 history of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, indicating an institutional relationship of participation that includes the viewer, rather than a power relationship that is meant to humble and awe them.
The lodestar of our studio is a respect for cultural history and primary voices in the creation of narratives. We are deeply connected to contemporary art and new media from around the globe, and also very experienced in the presentation of ancient material, textiles, archival material, and especially in the display of material culture that has its origin in spiritual practice. We connect with the idea of a museum as a place of transformation. We start dialogues with the question: What will you feel when you walk into this space?
Finally, we create contemporary exhibition design that participates in ideas of collaborative intelligence, listening to the needs of all departments, and celebrating the work of people worldwide who are awake to rapidly shifting dynamics between collecting institutions and the art-viewing public they serve.
