The Dinner Party
As part of London Design Festival Scholten & Baijings have transformed The Norfolk House Music Room in the V&A Museum, transporting viewers to a scene of undisturbed elegance.
In galleries and museums design objects are frequently displayed on pedestals or in glass vitrines but rarely in something resembling the everyday living environment for which they were conceived. Scholten & Baijings have responded to this perception by converting The Norfolk House Music Room into a complete dinner setting in a lived-in home.
The exhibit challenges the way people view objects in a gallery space, allowing them to see the products in a different way. Without the guide of nameplates and didactic labels, many designs are only discovered at a second glance and the boundaries between exclusive design and mass products become blurred. Past collections for notable designers such as Georg Jensen are included.
Scholten & Baijings have heightened the experience for the visitor by communicating a narrative for the scene: “The visitor enters just seconds after the guests have left to smoke a cigarette in the garden. One can use this unguarded moment to look at the luxurious dinner table and the interior undisturbed. The music is playing softly…”
The Dinner Party will be on display at the V&A Museum, London until Sunday 22 September 2013.
