The book tells by images the making of the Museum of the Etruscan and Roman City of Cortona, designed by the authors. Starting in 1996 as a temporary exhibition, in 1997 it become a section of the MAEC – the Museum of the Etruscan Academy and of the city of Cortona –, but was limited to one floor of Palazzo Casali and the exhibits were limited to reproductions, plastic models and dioramas, ie without any original objects. Then, in 2000, the willingness of the Archaeological Board of Florence to transfer some archaeological finds to Cortona, their ancient home, made it possible to envisage the museum as it has been created, ie in two phases: the first with a partial opening in 2005, and the second with the final arrangement in 2008. The exhibition puts a scientific project of Mario Torelli into effect, openly aiming to shift the attention from obsession with the archaeological objects, to the reconstruction of their historical and cultural contexts, and, at the same time, concludes equally long restoration work to the palazzo, carried out by Enrico Lavagnino, which has highlighted a complex stratigraphy with Etruscan, medieval, Renaissance and 19th century phases. The idea of the project is, therefore, to use the exhibition’s numerous finds and spacious displays to illustrate what has happened in territory, whilst simultaneously making the most of the complex palimpsest nature of the building. Concepts before objects: glass seemed to be the ideal material to achieve this goal. Walter Benjamin astutely pointed out its reductive capability: “Not for nothing is glass a cold and sober material. Glass objects do not have an aura. Glass is, above all, the enemy of secrets. And also the enemy of possession”. Therefore non display cabinets for objects, but transparent walls which put the archaeological material, the descriptions, the plastic models, the reproductions and the multimedia exhibits on an equal footing; and which use the architecture of the rooms as their background. In this way, an ancient way of displaying things is retrieved, vertically and with depth, with overlapping levels of perception; an approach which had fallen in disuse because of the growing interest in the “piece” per se. The new layout has had considerable success with the public and brought museum visitors to more than 50,000 per year.
Longobardi, G., Mandara, A., Pavese, F. (2008). Il vetro e la pietra. Un museo a Cortona. ROMA : Edizioni Librerie Dedalo.
Il vetro e la pietra. Un museo a Cortona
LONGOBARDI, GIOVANNI;
2008-01-01
Abstract
The book tells by images the making of the Museum of the Etruscan and Roman City of Cortona, designed by the authors. Starting in 1996 as a temporary exhibition, in 1997 it become a section of the MAEC – the Museum of the Etruscan Academy and of the city of Cortona –, but was limited to one floor of Palazzo Casali and the exhibits were limited to reproductions, plastic models and dioramas, ie without any original objects. Then, in 2000, the willingness of the Archaeological Board of Florence to transfer some archaeological finds to Cortona, their ancient home, made it possible to envisage the museum as it has been created, ie in two phases: the first with a partial opening in 2005, and the second with the final arrangement in 2008. The exhibition puts a scientific project of Mario Torelli into effect, openly aiming to shift the attention from obsession with the archaeological objects, to the reconstruction of their historical and cultural contexts, and, at the same time, concludes equally long restoration work to the palazzo, carried out by Enrico Lavagnino, which has highlighted a complex stratigraphy with Etruscan, medieval, Renaissance and 19th century phases. The idea of the project is, therefore, to use the exhibition’s numerous finds and spacious displays to illustrate what has happened in territory, whilst simultaneously making the most of the complex palimpsest nature of the building. Concepts before objects: glass seemed to be the ideal material to achieve this goal. Walter Benjamin astutely pointed out its reductive capability: “Not for nothing is glass a cold and sober material. Glass objects do not have an aura. Glass is, above all, the enemy of secrets. And also the enemy of possession”. Therefore non display cabinets for objects, but transparent walls which put the archaeological material, the descriptions, the plastic models, the reproductions and the multimedia exhibits on an equal footing; and which use the architecture of the rooms as their background. In this way, an ancient way of displaying things is retrieved, vertically and with depth, with overlapping levels of perception; an approach which had fallen in disuse because of the growing interest in the “piece” per se. The new layout has had considerable success with the public and brought museum visitors to more than 50,000 per year.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
