Project for the Piscina Mirabilis Museum, Bacoli 2020

The itineraries to visit the ancient vestiges of the Phlegraean Fields follow the Via Domitiana and various branches of it, or short detours which lead to the sites and monuments of this spectacular and mysterious region, where extraordinary natural phenomena merge with works which testify to the meeting and mingling of many civilizations. Along the itinerary from Baia to Cape Miseno, on the upper terrace of the highest hill which closes Lake Miseno to the east, south of the village of Bacoli, is the new museum of the Piscina Mirabilis. This colossal cistern, dug by the Romans out of a bank of tuff in the Augustan age, has recently been turned over to an exhibition venue thanks to a collaboration between architects and artists. They have given the monument a strongly evocative sense of place, to linger in, to visit, experiencing the fascination of the intimate dialogue between the immanence of the ancient and the additions of architecture and artworks which go to enhancing its ambiance. The Piscina Mirabilis has thus become an eminent museum, a pole that helps us get to know the territory and the various itineraries to visit it. The specific nature of the visual arts represented by carefully selected works, is expressed here in a dialogue between antiquity and contemporaneity, the brand new works displayed in ways that contrast them with local archaeological finds, works filled with references and citations, realized by contemporary internationally renowned sculptors, for the most part from the Campania region. The Entrance Hall (1) is located on the north-west side, marked by a faux-rust gate and an inscription in capitalis quadrata, as reconstructed by Jan Tschichold, chiselled into a surface of opus signinum; on the original tuff base, and against the new vertical wall, stand out the Seven Vases for the Sacred House by the sculptor Ugo Marano. The atrium is a casing enclosing the ancient wall, with the arched entrance to the original descending stairway. Immediately visible through the glazed floor is the first stretch of the balcony (2) from which the image of the imposing hypostyle hall and its aisles can be taken in, its play of light and shadows accentuated by the regular pattern of the skylights and the embrasured windows at the vault imposts. From here begins a route designed as a deep plunge into history; we descend along a new gently sloping staircase, flanked by tombstones, fragments, images that explain the role of the cistern and the Serino aqueduct and their relationship with the fleets, the sea, and the cultures who made it a basin of exchange and a crucible of civilization. The bottom of the cistern is thus reached, paved in terrazzo with glass inserts, into which shallow water tanks (3) were sunk, let into the geometrical pattern created by the pillars; only the two central ones arrive at the original level of the piscina limaria. The bottoms are characterized by coloured mosaics, realized using tesserae of stone, multi-coloured ceramics or other waste material, to the designs of artists who were also tasked with populating them with sculptures inspired by the freshwater deities known as the Naiads; while other ancient sculptures flank the pillars, almost playing the role of spectators. The treatment of the floors emphasizes the reflection of the zenithal light, so that the visitor has the feeling of moving across a veil of water. Six cubic volumes match the rhythm of the tanks, proposing themselves at the same time as boxes (4) for video art or documentaries and historical reconstructions, but also as podiums (5) for large sculptures, in particular the great wheels of Nicola Salvatore’s sculpture Whale. The visit takes us past walls in opus signinum, a support and parapet for the new stairs, on which stand large square platforms, a support for graphic illustrations of the site; these range lengthwise along the aisles to join the ascending stairway, symmetrical with respect to the descending one. Both of the new staircases leave the old ones intact (6), no longer accessible to the public, but instead used as an inclined support for reconstructions of the machinery and devices that allowed the water of the Serino aqueduct to be collected and channelled. Back at the level of the original roof of the cistern, we find ourselves in the new Gallery (7), which houses temporary art exhibitions using suspended panels and the entry of reflected light, harking back to Franco Albini's exemplar in the corridor of the Brera, arbitrarily destroyed. At the south-east end is a terrace (8) facing the port of Miseno and the Cape, while the south-west corner is open with a glazed volume (9) projecting towards Lake Miseno. These solitary emphatic frontages towards the outside break the introversion of the Museum, opening it up to the spectacle of the landscape. The new additions reaffirm the principle of the ancient structure’s serial organization, demonstrating its conformal continuation, their geometric precision revealing the presence of the underground construction. The Gallery opens alternately towards three courts (10) and two rectangular rooms which house the Convention Hall (11) and the Bookshop-cum-Cafeteria (12-13), roofed by vaults which recap the rhythm, measure and zenithal illumination of the ancient ones downstairs. The courts, conclusae like the patios of Mediterranean houses, are shaped to house theatrical performances, both on stages covered by canopies (14), as well as sculptural works which enter them in the role of protagonists. Among these are bronze statues by Giuseppe Maraniello and the Ghirba ‘goatskin’ by Antonio Ievolella, positioned at the end of a luxuriant trimmed Buxus hedge. The route through the tunnel, after a stop in the intense light of the panoramic view, ends at the double-height space of the atrium and the Administration Office (15), so that the descent, along the staircase flanked by the ancient wall, allows us to conclude the visit at the same place which welcomed us.