V&A East Storehouse is a thrilling meta-museum for the future
Will Jennings | recessed.space | 30th May 2025
Most objects in museum collections rarely get exhibited. London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, for example, has 3500 pairs of shoes, most of which are in “deep storage”. That museum has now opened a “storehouse” where the public can inspect the collection, either browsing out of curiosity or requesting items for close inspection. In the absence of curatorial logic, the ruling idea is the “primacy of the object. It is more factory than gallery, and all the better for it … a revolutionary prospect [for museography]”.