How do you exhibit on exhibitions, on how artworks were presented over the artworks themselves? Exhibition design is by definition backdrop, seeking the perfect setting in which to best let other works shine. To properly explore Bo Bardi’s exhibition work we had to reconfigure museumgoers’ expectations and pull their focus from the foreground to the BG. Additionally, Bo Bardi’s sketches and drawings regarding the original shows weren’t particularly detailed.

The solution on the surface was simple: let’s bring Bo Bardi’s displays and environments back to life through rebuilding sections of her exhibitions to scale. To compensate for the lack of comprehensive drawings we scoured through archival sources, using photographic records to reconstruct exhibitory elements as faithfully as possible.

To weave together past and present we also exhibited subtly arranged period photographs and original drawings, allowing visitors to grasp the scope of the initial exhibitions. Working in unison, the reconstructions and photos offered the next best thing to actually being there.

In the gallery’s entrance area, gently billowing banners of images and quotations from the architect established a calm introduction to both her and the exhibition.

Lined with cotton fabric and covered with glass, unobtrusively light tables were designed to house Bo Bardi's original drawings.

A key goal for all accompanying graphic design elements was a seamless merge between exhibition and environment. Embracing Bo Bardi’s design and aesthetic philosophies, texts set in the modernist typeface Brown were displayed with raw wood–separate letters for titles, cut boards for body texts and printed wood for captions.

For the show’s resultant catalog, the focus was set squarely on letting Bo Bardi’s works do the talking. Throughout (including the cover), images were left untouched by text, and chapter divisions were printed on smaller pages. Much like the show itself, the corresponding catalog is a robust call for the singular brilliance of Bo Bardi’s exhibition work.