Exhibition Design: "Shining Stars: Petőfi and His Era"

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Reframing Literature, Publishing, and Communication

Shining Stars: Petőfi and His Era is an exhibition design project centered on the transformation of an international literary theme into spatial display. Structured through clear chapters, it connects Petőfi’s life, poetry, historical context, and reception in China, integrating literary content, publishing materials, and historical documents into a coherent exhibition narrative.

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Within the context of the Museum of Modern Chinese Press and Publishing, the design goes beyond presenting artifacts and archives. It emphasizes readability and communication, using poetry, publications, images, and multimedia to create an exhibition environment with historical depth, narrative rhythm, and on-site presence. In this way, visitors are able to understand both Petőfi’s literary significance and his lasting influence on modern Chinese reading and publishing culture.

Design Highlights

• Centers on a literary figure while structuring the exhibition through person, works, and transmission
• Translates poetry, publishing materials, and historical images into a readable spatial narrative
• Highlights the thread of “Petőfi and China,” responding to the museum’s identity as a press and publishing institution
• Uses a chapter-based structure to improve the accessibility of an international literary exhibition
• Combines bilingual content with multimedia points to enhance the cross-cultural viewing experience
• Creates an exhibition environment that balances historical depth, reading rhythm, and on-site presence within a limited space

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Design ChallengeLiterary exhibitions are inherently text-heavy, and this Petőfi exhibition brings together multiple layers of content—biography, poetry, historical context, and reception in China. The core challenge of this project was how to build a clear narrative within a limited exhibition space, and guide visitors from familiar poems into a broader cultural understanding.

At the same time, because the exhibition was presented in the Museum of Modern Chinese Press and Publishing, the design needed to go beyond literary commemoration and address how literature is translated, published, read, and ultimately shaped into cross-cultural influence.

Design Strategy

The project is built around the idea of poetry, history, and resonance, transforming Petőfi’s literary spirit and transmission into a spatial narrative that can be read, viewed, and experienced.

In terms of content, the exhibition is organized around the person, the works, and reception in China, tracing Petőfi’s path from personal life to poetic creation and finally to his entry into Chinese publishing and reading culture. Compared with a simple chronological display, this chapter-based structure creates a clearer rhythm and more immediate emotional access for visitors.

Spatially, the design translates texts and documents into a more layered exhibition environment through the visualization of poetry, the spatial presentation of publications, bilingual interpretation, and key display moments. Poetry walls, multiple translated editions, bilingual text installations, and multimedia modules work together to help visitors gradually understand Petőfi and his cultural resonance in China.

Project Value

The significance of this project lies in transforming an international literary exhibition into a more public cultural experience through exhibition design.

Through spatial narrative and visual translation, Petőfi is presented not simply as a literary figure from textbooks or translations, but as a link between Hungarian literature, modern Chinese publishing culture, and public reading memory. The project brings poetry from the page into space, publishing from archive into experience, and cross-cultural transmission into a perceptible exhibition encounter.

For literary and publishing exhibitions, it also offers a more accessible curatorial approach—one that uses content structure, visual language, and spatial rhythm to make the abstract process of literary transmission clearer and more engaging for the public.