Manual Museum-visitor • Schunck* Museum / Stadsgalerij Heerlen (NL) • 2000

8 artists were nominated for the ‘Parkstad 2000’ prize, they all showed their work in the Stadsgalerij Heerlen (which is nowadays the Schunck* Museum).

I developed a special project for this occasion: ‘Manual Museum-visitor’. This manual was presented in the museum as a booklet, filled with images and descriptions of museum behaviour. The booklet contained postures, facial expressions, walking patterns, head positions, instructions to plan and perform the visit to the museum.

Various figurants were hired to be present in the museum during the project. The figurants were instructed through the Manual Museum-visitor. They were dressed in their normal clothes and were indistinguishable from other visitors.

In the museum, an announcement told visitors that there could be figurants present in the museum, and that these figurants were instructed by the Manual Museum-visitor.