Drawing on more than twenty-five years of practice in museography and exhibition scenography, Adrien Gardère proposes to rethink the museum as a place for learning how to look (visual literacy). From the Galerie du Temps at the Louvre-Lens to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, from the Narbo Via Museum in France to projects developed in China, Japan, Qatar and the United States, the lecture will explore how, in close dialogue with architecture and collections, space, works of art, knowledge and audiences can be choreographed simultaneously.

An architecture of the gaze that allows each visitor to move freely, establish their own connections, and construct their own narrative.

Adrien Gardère is a French exhibition and museum designer and the founder of Studio Adrien Gardère, established in 2000. The studio works extensively on permanent museum exhibitions, international exhibitions, cultural strategy, and spatial design, with an emphasis on the relationships among architecture, objects, place, and the public.

Over the past two decades, the studio has completed permanent exhibition designs for 14 major museums worldwide, more than 90 international exhibitions, and cultural strategy projects for more than ten international cultural institutions. Its collaborators have included internationally renowned architectural practices such as SANAA, Fumihiko Maki & Associates, Foster + Partners, David Chipperfield Architects, Herzog & de Meuron, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with projects including V&A East Storehouse in London and Tarrkarri – Centre for First Nations Cultures in Australia.

The session will be hosted by Ole Bouman. Following Adrien Gardère’s lecture, Ole Bouman will continue with a lecture titled Visitor as Curator: The session will be hosted by Ole Bouman. Following Adrien Gardère's lecture, Ole Bouman will continue with a lecture titled Visitor as Curator: You can address your exhibition visitor as an image consumer. You can also address him or her as an audience. But what happens if you allow them to become a participant? Or even a co-curator? This lecture is about activating the public and making them part of the creative process.

Ole Bouman is a Dutch architect, historian, and writer, and is currently a professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. His work has long focused on architectural curation and cultural research.

Bouman previously served as editor-in-chief of Volume magazine, director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, and director of Design Society in Shenzhen. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and served on the juries and advisory committees of various international awards and initiatives, including Rebuild by Design, the Architizer A+Awards, the Mies van der Rohe Award, the Medaglia d’Oro, and the European Prize for Urban Public Space.