Wereldmuseum Leiden – Tijd voor Papoea (2026)

Design and concept: Setareh Noorani and Jelmer Teunissen. Graphic design: Tabea Nixdorff. Build: Kloosterboer Decor

This exhibition design flips expected elements of Western exhibition design, such as the white cube typically reserved for modern autonomous art, to fit the dignified display of the objects and audiovisual testaments to Papuan design, art, and material cultures. The design remixes certain spatial and technical solutions from the context of ethnographic museums like Wereldmuseum Leiden. This spatial and graphic design offers the contemplation of ancestry and kinship to Papuan material and design cultures, and the possibility of shared futures.

In this spatial and graphic design, several propositions suggest a flow and visual or spatial connection, a constant, and a couple surprises to the rhythm. These include movement breaks as well as spaces for pause and intimate moments.

• Breaking up the rectangular space as architectural gesture, curved and braiding space, fisher nets, not forcing a routing but suggesting through flow
• Textiles, softening the space, routing supports the storyline
• Islands, mimics display modern exhibition, exhibiting the design and artistry of the makers
• Seating and encounter
• Colors and materials have a stylised reference to the natural surroundings, while forming an appropriate backdrop to the objects
• Reuse where possible, as noted with pages