In its pitch to the Oberhessisches Museum Gießen, facts and fiction developed an exhibition concept to reflect the museum's collection in a contemporary and visitor-oriented narrative. The aim of the design was to develop a modern and attractive scenography as a design bracket and to establish the museum as an extracurricular place of learning, remembrance and identification for an open urban society.
The exhibition is divided into nine thematic areas. Taking urban development as a starting point, the individual collections are not shown side by side as before, but are broken up and assigned to individual themes, thus telling a story. Each room is given its own metaphorical framing. Scenography and content are closely intertwined and present the exhibition's themes to visitors in a manner similar to a step-by-step model. A first glance reveals the overall picture, whilst closer inspection reveals the individual "layers" of Giessen's city history.
The structural realisation of the scenography varies from two-dimensional backgrounds ("wallpaper") to spatially staggered, relief-like or contour-milled prefabricated pieces and three-dimensionally built stage sets. Scenographic repetitions are avoided; each theme surprises with a new and unique spatial impression. Objects and showcases are integrated into these stage sets and invite to be discovered.
The creative diversity of the stagings needs a strong bracket, a "red thread", in order to create a coherent whole out of the deliberately diverse individual parts. This thread is the citizens of Gießen, whose biographies and stories are woven into the thematic areas. The graphic design and colouring of their portraits form the leitmotif that crops up as a recurring element in every exhibition station.
2020
