Chazen Museum of Art

• Curtain for two-story glass-walled lobby • 65 ft wide x 22 ft high (20 x 7 m) • Intricate construction of precisioncut felt, digitally custom-printed voile, silver-grey laser scrim, and grey silk • Provides sun/glare/noise reduction and privacy screening; also functions as a compelling and dynamic work of art • Coils into an internally lit column for storage

Inside Outside has made a special curtain for the entrance lobby of the new addition to the Chazen Museum of Art, a building by architects Machado and Silvetti Associates. The translucent curtain, measuring 65 x 22 feet and covering the entire glass facade, is a festive presence in the spacious hall, changing its colour and atmosphere and creating a more

private and enclosed room. When pulled back into its spiral-shaped storage position, it changes into a column of softly pleated cloth, lit from within by an elegant tube light. The curtain’s complex organization of criss-crossing lines seem to play a game with the linear compositions of the floor and ceiling patterns, at the same time enhancing the spatial logic of the architecture and countering the robust steel structures that form the glass facade that it aligns . Technically, this curtain reflects sunlight, filters the view, softens the acoustic quality of the space and creates privacy. It also takes away the strong reflections that are created by the black, mirroring surface of the glass facade during the evening.

A second curtain is installed in the auditorium on the ground level, where lectures will be given, movies will be shown and manifestations performed. This acoustically absorbent back¬drop or stage curtain is the ‘negative’ version of the entrance hall curtain. Its strong graphic presence will animate the space during performances or lectures but will, through an inge¬nious track configuration, step aside (revealing its dark and mysterious backside) to frame the projection screen when it is being used.