This book takes a profound look at exhibition design, or scenography, as an artistic medium. Mathilde Roman's introductory essay highlights the pioneering historical contributions by designers and architects like Lily Reich, Franco Albini, Lina Bo Bardi, Carlo Scarpa, and others who revolutionized their discipline. It examines how during the 20th and early 21st century experimentation with the display, the frame, the pedestal, the picture rails has become an artistic act in its own right. ...

In On Stage, Mathilde Roman explores the resonances that fields of theatre – stage, décor, space, gaze and more – have in the practice of video arts. Using these notions of theatre both as points of reference and as a prism through which video installation can be approached, Roman concentrates on questions often overlooked by art historians, theorists and critics. These include questions of exhibition architecture, display, viewer experience, temporality and the importance of the ...