LOUVRE - DNP
MUSEUM LAB
What Is Museum Lab? / Concept
Changing views and viewpoints
Viewing artworks is for us a source of emotion and pleasure, opening up new horizons. Through a wide range of technology and techniques, the Louvre-DNP Museum Lab brings a richer dimension to the way we view and appreciate art.
"Changing views and viewpoints," with works from the Musée du Louvre.
Born of the collaboration between Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) and the Musée du Louvre, Museum Lab was first launched in 2006.
Its main dedicated space in Gotanda (Tokyo) is the site of unique exhibitions, offering an original, multi-faceted, and leisurely take on artworks from the Musée du Louvre by incorporating the technological advances of multimedia displays. In addition, its website, workshops, and other activities offer various approaches to how we can "change our view" to "change our viewpoint" of the works, thereby enhancing our wonder and appreciation of art.
Enabling many to enjoy a "changing viewpoint"
From 2010, Museum Lab will embark upon its second phase, developing the range of its activities so that as many people as possible can enjoy a "changing viewpoint." A selection of the displays developed in Tokyo will be progressively set up in the galleries of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, offering the Museum Lab experience to visitors from the world over. Moreover, by rendering the results of its research more easily applicable to art institutions, museums, and educational establishments in France, Japan, or elsewhere, the project seeks to go beyond the Museum Lab framework to help bring together people and art.
Enhancing the relationship between people and art - the core of the Museum Lab project.
At the core of Museum Lab is "mediation"- namely anything that is used to forge a link between the visitor and a work of art, and the search for the most suitable methods of achieving such a link in a museum context - which is a constant preoccupation of the Musée du Louvre. DNP likewise aspires to the creation of a society that recognizes the diversity of culture and mindsets, seeking to contribute to the development of new modes of communication in terms of both business and cultural activities.
Both the Louvre and DNP share the conviction of the broad potential involved in forging links between human beings and artworks; Museum Lab is the starting point for such an approach to art appreciation.
A dialog with an artwork that opens up emotion and oneself
Art appreciation is not simply a matter of looking at an artwork, but a process of seeing, understanding, experiencing, and thinking to enhance the way we view it, using our imagination and sensibility to interpret meaning.
For the viewer, there is discovery, stimulus, emotion and the experience of opening up a new viewpoint.
The privileged relationship that grows up between the viewer and the artwork is precisely the form of art appreciation that Museum lab seeks to offer.
Museum Lab: three research themes
By focusing on the three themes listed below, Museum Lab seeks to offer ways for enhancing and enriching the relationship between human beings and art.
1. See
Providing keys for developing visitors' own ability to be more aware of the works they see before them.
2. Understand
Exploring the most suitable methods of conveying information to give visitors a better understanding of the artworks.
3. Experience
Offering visitors a lasting tangible experience of the pleasure to be gained through viewing an artwork and thereby encouraging them to apply this subsequently to other artworks.
(c)2013 Louvre - DNP Museum Lab