Outside the museum, the atmosphere was more exuberant.
"We are trying to keep some of the museum's atmosphere in a smaller space," said Kynaston McShine, the acting chief curator, who is now assembling works for the Queens exhibition.
Critics have previously attacked the choice of a fossil fuel company as a funder for the museum's Atmosphere gallery on climate science and said emails show Shell sought to influence the programme.
Whitechapel Gallery, London E1 from 4 July until 5 September Meschac Gaba The Museum of Contemporary African Art is an installation that combines the structure of a museum with the atmosphere of a west African market.
The museum has the atmosphere of a Soviet apartment (in fact, a real communal apartment existed on the site until a few years ago), with no labels or other usual museum signs – which is not a problem since most of the items are self-explanatory.
The museum recreates the atmosphere inside the high-security zone, through dioramas, military vehicles, border guards' uniforms and the oral testimonies of some of the 8,300 border-zone inhabitants who, suspected of disloyalty to the Communist dictatorship, were removed from the sperrgebiet beginning in 1952.
The museum's low-humidity atmosphere is good for artwork but dehydrates humans, as she learned early on.
He also seems determined to recreate the gloomy atmosphere of museum storage, leaving mirrors unpolished and some of the statues a bit dusty.
For other immigration museums, the heritage and atmosphere of their physical surroundings has been the key to their success.
The normally hushed atmosphere of museums is replaced by the noisy, boisterous crowd of the fairground.
