Exhibition design places visitors in raw terrain evocative of the forensic investigation and the operation leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden. C&G Partners uses geometric plywood forms modeled after combat-ready, field assembled encampments to double as media and artifact display cases and tells the story through the use of compelling artifacts, images, wall projections, architectural models, maps, and audio-visual footage.
The studio created the exhibition narrative as a crime story, albeit a horrific one at a huge scale. Like a police procedural, it is a story of driven professionals who unite to pursue clues and seek justice. As exhibition designers, the studio uses physical space as a storytelling medium, creating a sense of place, time, and plot to amplify the museum experience. To do this, the design borrows visual techniques from a range of sources.
The exhibit is built of tall angled “shards” of raw plywood, no two alike, which can be assembled to evoke a mountain canyon, military field office or residential compound. The shards hold objects, media, and text.
Evidence markers from a crime scene investigation inform the color and typography of the show.
The idea of declassified information inspires the use of redaction as a graphic motif throughout the exhibition
Lastly, the show’s strong media presence comes in surprising shapes and forms as well: media you can look down at, projections near architectural scale-models, and panoramas of forbidding mountain ranges. A top-down projection foregrounds a key exhibition artifact: a scale-model used to plan the raid that brought bin Laden to justice.
Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden is the second special exhibition designed by C&G Partners for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. In addition, the studio created permanent wayfinding signs, directional kiosks, and site maps for the Memorial and Memorial Museum when they opened in 2011 and 2014, respectively.
