The exhibition design project by Estúdio Chão for the exhibition “Ocean: The World Is an Archipelago,” currently on view at the Museum do Amanhã, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, transforms the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery, traditionally divided into compartments, into a single, expansive 600 m² monochromatic space that evokes the vastness and mystery of the ocean.
At the entrance, an antechamber functions as a prelude to the exhibition, creating a transition in sound and light in relation to the main gallery, a moment of preparation before the dive. Upon crossing it, visitors encounter a wide, continuous environment. Within this space, the main challenge was to accommodate the exhibition’s extensive content, composed of images, texts, and videos, without compromising the reading of the large central void.

To achieve this, the content was distributed in ways integrated with the exhibition architecture, at times embedded in surfaces, in the floor, behind partitions, and even on the ceiling. The exhibition design is organized through walls and portholes developed by the studio, allowing visitors to explore the environment freely. Some works are incorporated into more discreet planes, preserving spatial openness, while the portholes function as observation windows to the outside world, inviting visitors to approach the content in a more immersive way.
At the center of the gallery, the void is interrupted only by a whale skeleton. Introduced at the request of the curatorial team, this element structures the exhibition’s visual narrative and becomes a key component of the exhibition concept. The project also proposes the presentation of images of the whale “reborn” within this vast emptiness, resting on a base of sand.

Without the division into smaller rooms, the exhibition route is constructed within the open field of the space itself. Circulation is free, yet the spatial design subtly guides visitors to move across the entire gallery, creating points of attraction and engagement along the way. At the far end, bleachers designed by the studio form a continuous undulating surface, creating a kind of infinite backdrop for the space.
An ultra-transparent microfiber screen receives projections and, even while functioning as partition, allows visitors to be seen passing behind it, preserving the sense of vastness, the central premise of the project.
The lighting, developed in collaboration between Estúdio Chão and Fernanda Carvalho Lighting, reinforces this atmosphere. In low light conditions, the environment invites a gradual discovery of the exhibition’s content, while variations in light color simulate the movement of tides, transforming the perception of the space throughout the visit.

Team:

Architects: Estúdio Chão

Photographers: Renato Mangolin