Encountering the vitrine. Distance and proximity effects in museum vitrines.

This article analyses spatial dynamics in museum vitrine design through the lens of art theorist Rosalind E. Krauss’ grid concept. Due to the regularity of shelves, compartments and lattice framework, vitrines are characterized by a grid structure which, following Krauss’ conceptualization, has a double function: it frames a space within, and at the same time, extends outwards beyond its own framework. While museum literature often tells us that vitrines have a distancing effect, this article argues that because of their dual ability to frame and create focus, together with their grids’ extension into the space in which the museum visitor moves, vitrines can also generate a sense of bodily proximity. This argument draws on Walter Benjamin’s distinction between optical, distanced focus and haptic, proximate distraction. However, rather than maintaining an opposition between distance and proximity, the article emphasizes the oscillation between simultaneous distance and proximity effects in museum vitrine design.