What it had to solve
Genesis House, the Genesis car brand's flagship space in New York's Meatpacking District, partnered with experiential agency MATTE Projects on its biggest activation of the summer: how to make an icon feel genuinely new.
The idea
An exhibition that retells Marilyn Monroe 'not as myth, but as architect' — six rooms on her intelligence, ambition and deliberate self-authorship.
How it works
Cinematic installations, a recreation of her personal production office and a room of reimagined headlines spotlighting her actual accomplishments; rotary phones play one of her final interviews; three of her actual books sit alongside 400 replicas from her collection; a digital manifestation wall lets guests write intentions that light up the room.
What it did
Opened free to the public on 1 June 2026 — Monroe's 100th birthday — with Chloë Sevigny attending, and marked by a special centennial lighting of the Empire State Building livestreamed on Genesis House's showroom LED; free through 2 August 2026.
Background
Genesis House — the flagship brand space of automotive brand Genesis in New York's Meatpacking District — partnered with culture-driven experiential agency MATTE Projects on 'Manifesting Marilyn: The Making of an Icon', a centennial exhibition reframing one of the world's most recognisable figures through the lens most rarely explored: her intelligence, ambition and deliberate self-authorship.
Visitors move through six distinct environments: cinematic installations, a recreation of Monroe's personal production office, and a room of reimagined headlines spotlighting her actual accomplishments rather than the sensational coverage she received. Interactive moments ground the myth in the person — rotary phones playing one of her final interviews, three of her actual books alongside 400 replicas from her collection, and a digital manifestation wall where guests write their own intentions and watch them illuminate the room.
The exhibition opened on 1 June 2026, what would have been Monroe's 100th birthday, with actress Chloë Sevigny in attendance, and was marked by a special centennial lighting of the Empire State Building, livestreamed on Genesis House's showroom LED screen. It was free and open to the public through 2 August 2026.
Why it lands
The curatorial angle is the idea: 'not as myth, but as architect' — restraint, specificity and a clear editorial point of view over overexplaining.
The reimagined-headlines room directly answers the sensational coverage Monroe actually received, correcting the record in physical form.
Artifacts anchor the story: her production office, her books, her final interview voice on rotary phones — evidence rather than hagiography.
For Genesis, hosting culture rather than cars gives the brand space a reason to exist beyond product display.
What you can take
Against an over-documented subject, the differentiator is editorial: choose the least-told true angle and let artifacts, not explanations, carry it.
Since then
The exhibition ran free at Genesis House, 787 11th Avenue, New York, from 1 June through 2 August 2026. No attendance figures were reported.
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