The Open Space Museum (OSM) is a modular, portable exhibition platform designed for collaboration with museums, cultural institutions, festivals, municipalities, universities, research organizations, artists, and other partners interested in presenting cultural content in public and alternative spaces.
Rather than offering a single fixed exhibition, the OSM provides an adaptable cultural, social, digital, and architectural framework. Existing elements can be combined with newly developed content to create an installation responding to the collections, themes, location, audience, and curatorial objectives of each host.
The Open Space Museum was assembled at full scale, tested, and opened to the public in Basel in 2026. Following this first full-scale presentation, the OSM is now entering its next phase of development and is seeking new locations, institutional partners, and exhibition opportunities.
What Can OSM Offer?
The Open Space Museum creates an environment in which cultural interpretation, social interaction, and digital engagement become part of the same spatial experience.
Depending on the host, location, and project, an OSM presentation can include:
- Existing Case Study Elements for cultural and interpretive experiences
- New Case Study Elements developed around specific collections, artworks, or themes
- Social Elements supporting rest, conversation, observation, play, and informal exchange
- Research-based Demonstrators
- Browser-based Engagement Applications
- Interactive media and digital interpretation
- Conversational AI interfaces developed from curated cultural and research material
- Artistic commissions and born-digital artworks
- Custom spatial and interpretive design for a specific location
A presentation can range from individual elements or smaller OSM Transforms to a larger configuration of the complete Open Space Museum.
Adaptable to Collections, Themes & Locations
The existing OSM contains Case Study Elements developed around painting, sculpture, cultural heritage, historical photography, textiles, conservation research, and born-digital art. These elements demonstrate different approaches to interaction and interpretation; they are not intended as a fixed catalogue.
For museums and collection-based institutions, new elements can be developed around artworks, archaeological objects, historical material, conservation questions, or other parts of the host collection.
For festivals, universities, municipalities, public-space programs, and other partners, the OSM can instead be developed around a theme, research question, artistic program, local history, community, or site.
This allows each OSM presentation to acquire its own cultural identity while retaining the common architectural, social, and participatory principles of the platform.
Cultural, Social & Digital
The Open Space Museum brings together three interconnected experiential layers within a common modular architectural framework.
Cultural & Interpretive — Case Study Elements
The Case Study Elements form the principal cultural and interpretive layer of the OSM. They transform artworks, museum objects, research, and cultural narratives into physical experiences that encourage observation, movement, play, reflection, and participation.
Human & Social — Social Elements
The Social Elements create places for sitting, resting, conversation, observation, and informal exchange. They establish the social rhythm of the OSM and allow visitors to slow down, spend time within the exhibition, and engage with both the cultural content and one another.
Digital — Engagement Applications
Browser-based Engagement Applications extend the physical experience through interpretation, image, sound, movement, interaction, and participatory media. They can be accessed directly through visitors' own devices without installing dedicated software and can continue to be used beyond the physical exhibition.
Architectural Framework
These three layers are brought together through the OSM's modular aluminum space-frame system. The structure can be assembled, dismantled, transported, and reconfigured, allowing the relationship between cultural, social, and digital components to be adapted to different collections, locations, audiences, and exhibition formats.
Conversational AI
The digital layer of the Open Space Museum is being expanded through conversational artificial intelligence.
These systems allow visitors to ask questions directly and receive responses through an AI-mediated interpretive interface developed around specific cultural, historical, artistic, or research material.
The first application is being developed in connection with the ISIS Reflectorium. Visitors will be able to interact with an AI agent assuming the interpretive role of Isis and explore archaeological, historical, ritual, and cultural questions through conversation.
The intention is not to replace scholarly or curatorial interpretation. Instead, conversational AI provides an additional exploratory interface through which visitors can formulate their own questions and engage more directly with cultural content.
The same approach can be developed for other collections, historical contexts, artistic projects, and research themes using curated material supplied or reviewed by project partners.
Basel 2026 — Built & Tested
In 2026, the Open Space Museum was assembled at full scale, tested, and opened to the public in Basel, Switzerland.
During a four-week public presentation, approximately 500 visitors experienced the installation, with guided tours offered twice daily.
The Basel phase allowed the team to test and refine the OSM under real exhibition conditions, including:
- Structural assembly and dismantling
- Case Study Elements
- Social Elements
- Visitor circulation and spatial flow
- Accessibility and ergonomics
- Digital interaction
- Construction procedures
- Packing, storage, and transport procedures
Following the Basel presentation, the OSM was dismantled and packed into custom-built transport crates in preparation for future installations.
Smaller Formats — OSM Transforms
A collaboration does not require the installation of the complete Open Space Museum. For institutions, festivals, and other hosts seeking a smaller-scale project, selected parts of the OSM can be developed as an OSM Transform.
OSM Transforms use the same principles of cultural interpretation, interaction, and public engagement as the larger Open Space Museum, but concentrate them within a smaller spatial configuration.
A Transform can combine selected Case Study Elements, Social Elements, Demonstrators, Engagement Applications, or newly developed content in response to a particular collection, theme, location, or event.
This format can be particularly appropriate for:
- Smaller exhibition spaces
- Temporary exhibitions and shorter presentations
- Festivals and cultural events
- Museum courtyards, foyers, and transitional spaces
- Universities and research presentations
- Projects focused on a single collection, artwork, or cultural theme
- Pilot projects leading toward a larger OSM collaboration
The scale and content of an OSM Transform can therefore be developed specifically around the host's available space, objectives, and resources.
Practical Information
The Open Space Museum was developed as a modular system capable of being dismantled, transported, reconfigured, and rebuilt at different locations.
Experience from the Basel installation provides the following working parameters:
- Assembly team: approximately 3 people
- Assembly time: approximately 5 days
- Dismantling time: approximately 3 days
- Transport: 10 custom-built crates
- Crate volume: approximately 1.1 m³ per crate
- Structural system: modular aluminum space-frame construction
The exact footprint, configuration, technical requirements, and number of elements depend on the location and the scale of the proposed presentation.
The modular system makes it possible to develop both larger OSM configurations and more compact installations for locations where space or infrastructure is limited.
How a Collaboration Develops
Each OSM collaboration begins with the host rather than with a predetermined exhibition format.
The first stage is to identify the location, audience, cultural material or theme, curatorial objectives, and desired scale of the project. From there, an appropriate combination of existing and newly developed OSM components can be established.
A collaboration may include:
- Initial discussion and identification of project objectives
- Review of the proposed site and spatial conditions
- Selection of collections, artworks, themes, or research material
- Selection of existing OSM components
- Development or adaptation of Case Study Elements
- Development of digital, media, and AI-based interpretation where appropriate
- Spatial and technical planning
- Production and preparation
- Transport, assembly, testing, and public presentation
This process allows the OSM to respond to the identity of the host and location rather than simply reproducing the same exhibition from one site to another.
Who Can Partner with OSM?
The Open Space Museum is interested in discussions with:
- Museums and collection-based institutions
- Art museums and galleries
- Archaeological and historical museums
- Cultural heritage organizations
- Festivals and biennials
- Municipalities and public-space programs
- Universities and research institutions
- Foundations and cultural organizations
- Artists, curators, and interdisciplinary project teams
Current Development
Following the Basel presentation, development of the Open Space Museum continues. Current work includes further refinement of selected Case Study Elements, new digital interpretation, conversational AI, and the development of future institutional partnerships.
The next phase will gradually extend the OSM to new locations and cultural contexts through collaborations in Switzerland and internationally.
Interested in Hosting or Partnering with OSM?
We welcome enquiries from institutions, organizations, curators, researchers, and cultural partners interested in hosting, adapting, commissioning, or developing an Open Space Museum presentation.
An initial discussion does not require a defined exhibition proposal. We are happy to explore whether the OSM could be appropriate for a particular collection, theme, location, or public program.
Arthur Clay
Open Space Museum / Virtuale Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland
arthur@virtuale-switzerland.org
Further photographic documentation, technical information, and project materials are available on request.