In times like these, left seems right, right seems left, up is down, down is up. Often it seems like everything has been turned inside-out. The English name of the institution, Inside-Out Art Museum, suggests a museum without walls, a museum that meets the audience at eye level, a museum that shows a different perspective, a museum that presents exhibitions that linger in the middle of things, a museum that participates in people’s lives, a museum that comments on and discusses what’s happening in the society surrounding it.

The title of the exhibition, Setting the Tone of the Exhibition (outside-in), plays on and reverses the inside-out. It invites inside what is outside. The exhibition attempts to bring a cacophony of mashed observations from the outside into the museum space; it attempts to present an overload of visual impressions; it tries to make a 3D sketch mimicking social media feeds. In short: it attempts to show ways of setting the tone within visual culture.

If I could blow up a confetti bomb every time someone entered the museum. Every time. Right behind them. I would. If I could hire three magicians to pull doves out of their sleeves as people entered I would. Every time. Right in front of them. If I could have a politician roar their message right next to the reception as people bought their ticket I would. Every time. Right next to them. If I could have someone play the lute or dance samba really close to people as they entered I would. Every time. Really close to them. If I could have ten food trucks creating the atmosphere of a street market around the audience, I would. Every time. Surrounding them.

“Setting the tone” is a phrase rooted in music, referencing the opening notes of a composition: the way a song’s first notes evoke an atmosphere forming an emotional thread on which everything we are to hear will hang. It also relates to how a film’s opening scene generates a curiosity on which narrative cliffhangers depend. How the mood and ambience of a space can be strengthened with enhanced work and exhibition displays.

Setting the Tone of the Exhibition (outside-in) at Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, brings together works by thirty international artists. They explore how different artistic gestures and methods can have an impact on our perception of spaces and engagement with these spaces. Ideally the exhibition will evoke the experience of an absurd yet poetic (somewhat chaotic; psychedelic) playhouse, where the overload of the image-tsunami outside has been injected into our veins. The exhibition is connected to the overall theme of the project Setting the Tone of the Exhibition – The Anatomy of Exhibition Openings that researches the methodology of exhibition making. Setting the Tone of the Exhibition looks at how curators and artists address the complexities of shaping an exhibition, focusing on where it truly begins – not just with the opening, but in the curatorial decisions made beforehand. Through titles, graphic design, social media, locations, spatial narra tives, artworks, books, performances, and seminars, curators set the tone for the viewer’s first encounter with the exhibition.

The exhibition mixes several genres within visual cultures. Audiences will experience scent, sound, design, jewellery and (last but not least) many different approaches to visual art. It is the type of exhibition where you will have to engage to explore everything. You will need to ask the museum staff at the counter to get a closer look at what they are wearing, even what time it is, to experience the art.