Conceptual approaches to the design of advertising and information support for the exhibition of contemporary art

Sonina Ol'ga Eduardovna Teacher of the Petrovsky College of Saint-Petersburg; applicant of the Department of History and Theory of Design and Media Communications, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design 191186, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Bolshaya Morskaya str., 18 olga_sonina@list.ru Other publications by this author

Contemporary art exhibitions today are one of the most dynamically developing areas of culture, affecting a wide range of artistic practices, reflecting the diverse points of view and experience of artists in the modern world. According to the French art critic and curator N. Bourriot, modern artistic activity is not some kind of unshakable essence, but an ever-changing dynamic process, whose forms, methods and functions vary depending on the period or socio-cultural context, and the exhibition project can be described as an "intensive meeting mode" ^{[1, p. 16]}. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the spread of the Internet and social networks, which made it possible to reach a huge audience and not be limited by geographical or time frames. Both in Russia and abroad, biennales (triennales) and festivals of contemporary art, architecture, and design are actively held, which form a dynamic creative environment with prestige and social attractiveness. At the same time, according to Carlos Basualdo, curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, biennales are often perceived as a product of mass culture, which especially emphasizes the "international character of cultural and artistic production" as a result of the globalization of modern artistic practices ^[2]. Advertising and information materials accompanying large exhibition projects, combining the functions of advertising and representation of art objects, are an important communication channel, a source of scientific knowledge and a reflection of the general idea of the project, and design serves as a conductor of images and meanings embedded in the concept of the exhibition project.

Within the framework of this study, advertising and information support is of particular interest in the context of the concept of "visual identification system", which is increasingly being replaced by a more capacious and universal identity "identity", which appeared initially in sociology and psychology as a set of complex characteristics of the integrity of the inner world of a person, and subsequently transformed into "a certain stability of individual socio-cultural, national or civilizational parameters that allow answering the questions: "Who am I?" or "Who are we?" ^[3].  These questions are also relevant for the exhibition project, as the answer to them allows you to build a system of relations with visitors, critics, participants and to identify your position in the space of intensive cultural exchange.

Thus, the focus of our attention is:

- elements of the visual identification system of the exhibition project;

- connections and relationships between individual elements;

- artistic means that ensure the unity of the system;

- ways to place elements on various media.

In the context of the objectives of this study, several works can be identified on various aspects of the creation of exhibition projects.

In M.V. Biryukova's study "The evolution of curatorial projects in the second half of the twentieth century in the context of the theory and philosophy of culture", the biennale and triennial are considered within the framework of the concept of a "big project" — a cultural event that represents "a certain set of meanings relevant to the modern artistic paradigm. It is a visual demonstration of social, cultural and philosophical ideas within the framework of the curatorial concept" ^[4].

Of particular interest is the 2018 monograph devoted to the study of the modern audience of exhibition projects. "Something new and unusual": the audience of contemporary art in major Russian cities." One of the key aspects of the study is the customer journey approach, which examines the needs and behavioral strategies of a modern audience, which, according to the researchers, is primarily a "cultural audience", that is, has a cultural and educational background, a habit of cultural consumption, a certain level of curiosity about the new and a certain the kind of values (for example, they are ready to accept the experimental, non-canonical), the desire for self-development, for which the content and saturation of cultural leisure are important ^[5]. 

The study of communicative possibilities, artistic and figurative organization and methods of designing graphic design objects was carried out by domestic authors E. Chernevich ^[6], I. N. Stor ^[7], T.O. Gabrielyan ^[8]. The most important aspect of these studies is an integrated approach to the design of graphic design objects, which is considered as an information processing strategy that determines the functioning of complex visual communication systems.

Herbert Bayer's 1961 article "Aspects of the design of exhibitions and museums" ^[9] is of great importance for the study, in which exposition design is considered as a large information complex — the pinnacle of all mass media and communication, the development of which is due to the evolution of exhibition technologies and new concepts of graphic design. For G. Bayer, effective communication at the exhibition is achieved through the total use of all plastic and psychological means aimed at telling a story, keeping the attention of the audience and forming a special language of exposition design, which is similar in artistic and figurative means and logic of construction to the structure of the book. It should be noted that in the foreign literature of recent years, in relation to exhibition projects, the term "display" is used, a synonym for the English "exhibition" (exhibition), other meanings of translation are display, demonstration, presentation, typographic composition or printed publication intended to attract attention (in advertising) or part of a device (for example, a tablet screen), which represents visual information ^[10]. Analyzing the literature on modern exhibition projects, in the article "Returning to the show: The show and behind the scenes" D. Richter notes that these values imply a focus on the user interface (that is, the perception of the visitor) and the "primacy of the visual surface" ^{[11, p. 7]}, which is the main channel of information transmission, and covers all elements expositions and accompanying materials. Thus, a comprehensive analysis of advertising and information support involves, among other things, the study of logical and visual connections between the conceptual construction of the exhibition itself and the design of media about the project - printed publications, outdoor advertising and advertising on the Internet.

The basis of this research was the advertising and information materials of the international exhibitions documenta^[1], from 1955 to 2017 and the Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art from 2010 to 2021.

Documenta was first held in 1955 in Kassel (Germany). The purpose of the exhibition was an attempt to form a fundamentally new attitude of the German public to the art of the Weimar Republic period, the development of which was interrupted by German totalitarianism, and to show its connection with post-war art, architecture and design of modernism. About 600 works by expressionists, Cubists, futurists and constructivists from Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA, who had a great influence on the art of the XX century, as well as photographs of modernist architecture by Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, were presented.

"Europe" and "European Art of the twentieth Century" were the original versions of the name, but as a result, the organizing committee adopted the more capacious and universal "documenta" proposed by the founder of the project Arnold Bode. The exhibition was supposed to help overcome the German public's distrust of abstract art, which in Germany in the 30s of the XX century was designated as degenerate, to destroy the stereotypes of the terms "Dokumente" or "Kulturdokumente", which the Nazis assigned to specific objects of art.    Changing the spelling of "Dokumente" (documents) to the "more Latin" documenta symbolized an appeal to some international language that everyone understood, and was a characteristic feature of many German brands of that time, shortening their names to improve the sound and better memorability.  According to Catherine M. Floyd, the 1955 exhibition had a lot in common with a modern corporation, starting from the organizational structure, negotiations with government and industry representatives sponsoring the event, to the presentation of "high-quality" goods" (works of art) and a wide range of "products" (artists, styles and stories) united by a common concept ^[12].

The basis of the graphic design of documenta 1 was a font logo based on the Wordmark typeface from the Akzidenz Grotesk family (Fig. 1), which used only lowercase letters, which was completely unusual for advertising of this period and strengthened the connection with the typographic tradition of the Bauhaus school, based on a rational approach, rejection of any decorativeness, rigor, geometricity forms. The lowercase letter "d" becomes the main compositional element of the advertising poster, actually dividing the plane of the sheet in half.  The texts printed in French, English and Italian are characterized by a clear structure and, as in the logo, the use of exclusively lowercase letters. The visual accent of the poster is the name Kassel, located on a black die. Thus, the organizers created a strict and universal style of the exhibition, thanks to which, on the one hand, the interrupted history of German art and design was paid tribute, and on the other hand, the foundation for its further development was laid. The exhibition became regular and it was decided to hold it every 5 years.  The development of the exhibition project extended not only to exposition practices, but also to the modification of all accompanying advertising and information materials in accordance with new tasks. The creation of a visual identification system based on unified corporate identity programs typical of large international corporations emphasizes the institutional orientation of the exhibition and allows us to consider it as a dynamically developing brand, which, thanks to the efforts of the curator and his team, presents a new look at contemporary art, and demonstrates a constant desire for innovation.

Figure 1 shows the documenta logos from 1955 to 1972. It is clearly seen how there is a gradual transition from the clear, geometric rationality of the design of the first exhibition to the search for an artistic image, and possibly the rejection of graphic design as an integral system with clear principles. 

The first step was to abandon the lowercase "d" as the main character and the basis of the first projects. The exhibition number, which was previously conventionally designated as horizontal strokes, becomes an equally significant element. In the 1972 project, it is the basis of visual design and is an image made by designer Ed Ruscha in the form of deliberately realistic ants forming the number 5 on a bright orange background, which, according to Roberta Smith, symbolized the hype that usually rises around such projects ^[15].

Fig. 1. Documenta logo 1955 - 1972

The 1972 catalog also differs significantly from the modernist design of earlier editions, which actively used modular grids and universal minimalistic fonts. The use of glossy plastic, the rejection of traditional binding — the catalog was a stationery folder on springs, where individual sheets could be inserted or removed, was more associated with the aesthetics of pop art and emphasized a conscious break with previous projects, maximum openness and democracy. Documenta 5 curator Harold Zeeman outlined the theme of the exhibition "Questioning reality. Picturesque worlds today" ^[14]. A significant part of the 1972 exposition were books that could not only be viewed, but also read. Accessibility, the ability to freely discuss what was read, was an important part of the concept of X. This gave rise to the appearance of new printed publications in further projects.

Fig. 2. Documenta logo 1977 - 1997

Fig. 3. Documenta logo 2002 - 2017

Since documenta 1, each subsequent exhibition has been aimed at rethinking the concept of contemporary art and related exhibition practices, searching for new forms of interaction between organizers and participants. According to E.Ya. Koenigsberg, "Among the most important approaches and strategic decisions of documenta's artistic directors and curators should be called an invitation to cooperate with specialists overseeing the thematic sections of the exhibition; close interaction with artists in order to create works specifically for the exhibition, using the possibilities of new media, innovative forms of presentation, expanding the boundaries of contemporary art, carefully thought-out dialogical work with the audience" ^{[15, p. 174]}. The design of the accompanying advertising and information materials was intended, in addition to performing its main functions, to emphasize an interdisciplinary focus, and reflect the search for organizers and their understanding of the concept of the exhibition project as a global cultural phenomenon. The subjectivity of the approach gave rise to new experiments of visual identification systems. Two stable trends can be traced in the logo design changes: the first pays tribute to documenta 1 (Fig. 1,2.3), using lowercase d and the exhibition number, even if the design emphasizes its rejection of the modernist tradition, the second completely abandons any designations and connections with the first projects and distances itself from established approaches to developing a logo, understanding it as an exclusively artistic object, and not an object of design (Fig. 1,3). For example, the logo for documenta 12, designed by Martha Stutteregger. The theme of "Migration of forms" is reflected in the graphic sign, in which, unlike previous projects, neither the letter "d" nor the exhibition number appeared. The number 12 is represented in the form of 10 vertical strokes drawn by hand with a ballpoint pen and 2 strokes crossing from left to right. On posters and other printed products, these strokes look very contrasting compared to the clearly formed and left-aligned title.

The identity for 13 documents was developed by the Italian studio Lefloft. Not just a visual identity was created, but "an analytical grammar that describes the project and structures it as an invisible skeleton" ^[16]. Writing "dOCUMENTA (13)" is not a logo, as conceived by the authors, but a theoretical concept that allows the use of any font, even handwritten. Typography varies depending on the medium — press releases, websites, letterheads, and various print media use different typefaces combined with the same visual syntax. Recognition is ensured by case-sensitive inversion of letters, which is a reflection of the idea of changing the order and striving for renewal.

The creators of 14 documenta invited four design studios to develop the identity, thereby questioning the idea of the identity of the project as an integral organism. The development of communication elements was carried out without any typographic recommendations, agreed color palettes, logo or any other rules to be followed. Since the exhibition had two parallel locations in Athens and Kassel, the organizers tried to challenge the concept of "identity" as a unidirectional understanding, one correct answer to one correct question and the transformation of content into recognizable patterns. This idea reflects criticism of the current state of graphic design and corporate style as a phenomenon that is not able to properly reflect the versatility of a cultural project. Instead of creating a single style for use in various media, the documenta 14 approach allows each element of communication to be shaped depending on the medium.

German designers Laurenz Brunner and Julia Born have developed a website, business cards, as well as a font, including its Greek version for the exhibition in Athens. In accordance with the theme of documenta 14, "Learning from Athens," the French design studio Vier5's has developed navigation for the exhibition, imitating hand-drawn street signs that are almost indistinguishable from the real ones. Vier5's designers consider design as a free art form, although art is "safe and protected" behind the walls of museums, and graphic design, on the contrary, "directly contacts people and society" ^[17]. The navigation developed by the studio, due to its formal similarity to road signs, organically fit into the urban environment, but demonstrated a complete loss of the system of logical and visual connections, orderliness characteristic of a design project. The goal of the designers was to form a new type of relationship between visitors and the city, which is completely different from other cultural events, and the lack of an integrated visual system guiding visitors should have provoked them to look for landmarks on their own, showing creative intuition. This idea did not find a response from visitors and was sharply criticized. Posters appeared on the streets, very similar to those created by Vier5's studio, where the inscription "Learning from Athens" was replaced with "Earning from Athens".

The site is a three-part structure conceived as a collection of scattered and overlapping notes, and is a visual reflection of the themes and concepts presented at the exhibition and practical information about the work of the venues and current events. The developers of the site deliberately sacrificed the rationality of the interface, which ensures ease of use, in order to reflect the conceptual components of the project: emotions, information and research.

Swiss designer Ludwig Balland designed the layout of the catalog for 14 documenta, which was designated as a "Reader", where a separate page with photographs of works and explanatory texts was dedicated to each artist. What was different from previous exhibitions was the publication of the so-called 14 documenta diaries, paper editions reflecting and explaining the entire 163-day program of the exhibition. According to the general concept, posters, diaries and catalog did not reveal any stylistic or coloristic unity, each object was an independent work, and a separate design tactic was built for each. This approach allows us to form a certain hierarchy when art, rather than corporate design, becomes dominant in a global exhibition project and remains in the memory of visitors.

The Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art is one of the largest projects in the modern history of Russia. The first Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art was held in 2010 in Yekaterinburg. The main idea of the biennale is the development of industrial spaces, drawing attention to the architectural heritage, combining the industrial and artistic traditions of Yekaterinburg, forming a new point of attraction for the professional art community and a wide audience. Empty factory workshops, stopped production, the Ural Worker printing house, the Chekist Town residential complex formed an artistic space for a large creative laboratory, giving both artists and viewers the opportunity to rethink the industrial environment of Yekaterinburg.

Fig. 4. Informational posters of the Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art 2010-2021.

The logo of the biennale is a silhouette of a factory — one of the main motifs of constructivist industrial graphics. Throughout the entire existence of the biennale, the logo remains unchanged, while the other elements of the graphic design are transformed in accordance with the theme (Fig.4).

The central theme of the First Ural Biennale was photographs of crumbling industrial premises, which formed the background for font compositions, which were dominated by bold outlines of grotesque fonts typical of industrial graphics of the early 20th century. Similar fonts were used for the design of the II Biennale, however, the color scheme changed, and the font composition was supplemented with inscriptions in English, contrasting thin font. Of particular interest is the catalogue of the I Biennale, published in two volumes. Volume I, along with critical articles and descriptions of projects, presents color photographs made by workers of the Uralsky Rabochy printing house, where the exhibition was held, while all other images, including art objects, are black and white. This is a kind of spatial illustration of the article by the curators of the project E. Degot, K. Kostinas, D. Riff "The Strikers of mobile images" (the theme of the I Ural Biennale), in which the authors talk about the nature of modern art in the era of "extreme mobility and reproducibility, when images are constantly recoded, retransmitted, re-appropriated by new consumers", its historical and the logical connection with the Soviet shock of the USSR and the photo collages created by factory workers in the 1990s, which, according to the authors of the project, are nothing more than "anonymous works of art" ^{[18, p. 34]}. Volume II is a collection of special projects of the biennale and is an open binding with cardboard covers, thanks to which the structural elements of the book block are exposed. Thus, the catalog, not limited to the function of the information carrier, becomes part of an artistic experiment.

A series of informational posters was created for the III Biennale, using various artistic means for different locations. Some of them used monochrome photos of industrial objects and compositional techniques of constructivist posters – free arrangement of typographic signs, underlining, dynamics. The other part consisted of formal compositions with geometric patterns, figuratively reminiscent of evacuation plans and room symbols typical of technical documentation. Stencil fonts were used on many information media. Thus, the visual and logical connection with industrial art and industrial graphics of the USSR is preserved.

The visual system of the IV Biennale is formed from collages of geometric shapes and stencils on which information is placed. A motif appears in the form of a grid of thin lines with breaks for the text, which served as a background for the formation of a "New Literacy" — the conceptual idea of the biennale. This motif can also be traced in the spatial organization of the entrance group of the exhibition (architects Ashot Karpetyaom and Peter Lyubavin), located in the building of the former instrument-making plant. The basis of the design for outdoor advertising was scaffolding, thanks to which the effect of overlapping grids was created, in the cells of which information boards of various shapes were placed.  As a result, imaginative, graphic and spatial solutions are organized into a single system that retains flexibility depending on the selected medium and location in a certain space.  

The identity of the V Biennale presents the theme of "Immortality", deliberately rejecting any associations with constructivist industrial graphics. The use is mainly of fine font outlines, gradients and the mirrored image effect for Russian and English texts. The conceptual solution of the special Infinity project served as a motive for most media about the project and a logical continuation of the main theme of the biennale. This contributed to new experiments with expressive means and materials of the catalog — its mirrored dust jacket is a metallized surface on which the infinity sign and contours of the Karagai quarry in Satka are applied using lines of different thicknesses, on the territory of which the largest land art in the entire history of the biennale was placed.

In the design of the VI Biennale, the departure from the theme of industrialization in graphic design is felt even more strongly. The main expressive means of advertising and information support are pink backgrounds for images, thin lines, classic serif fonts combined with black-and-white photographs reflecting various events of the biennale. This approach is used on all information media, the navigation system in exhibition spaces, the spatial organization of exhibitions, as well as souvenirs. The emphasized minimalistic design of the events made it possible to reflect several curatorial ideas in the graphic materials at once — the main theme "Time to hug and avoid hugs", the concept of exhibition venues as Kazimir Malevich's "planit" series, which formed the basis of the organizational structure and partly served as a counterweight to "Immortality", the theme of the last biennale ^[19]. This solution of the graphics system allowed us to reflect the flexibility of the framework and the ability of a large project to combine events of completely different conceptual orientation. 

Thus, the study of the formation of graphic systems of the largest periodical projects of modern art has revealed two well-established trends. The first originates from the artistic means of design, based on the corporate identity program as the basis and strategy for organizing a recognizable graphic system. It is based on the simplification of visual language, the use of iconic elements or signs reflecting the ideological content of projects and combines elements of the exhibition space, outdoor advertising, printed publications and souvenirs.

The second is based on the complication of the visual language, denies the unity of the elements of advertising and information support, as a sign of belonging to the culture of entertainment and marketing technologies, more typical for the promotion of mass consumption products.

Advertising and informational materials accompanying exhibitions of contemporary art, along with the project itself and the art objects presented, can become an artistic statement that the design, not limited to its utilitarian and aesthetic function, puts into a new artistic form.

^[1] The spelling of the original title has been preserved in accordance with the official website containing critical and archival materials and exhibition catalogues.