Post-War Museography in Italy

Alessandro Brodini DIDA | Department of Architecture, University of Florence

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the devastation caused by the bombing left a severely damaged architectural heritage in Italy. At the same time, it offered the extraordinary opportunity to rethink the world of the museum. During the fascist regime, twenty years before, the country closed itself entirely to the innovations that were changing the face of the prominent foreign museums. Such elements had been disseminated by the Mouseion magazine (founded in 1927) and discussed during the significant international conference on museography, held in Madrid in 1934. By paradox, during Italy’s fascist era, many Italian architects, looking at the European artistic Avantgardes (especially Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Russian Deconstructionism), acquired substantial experience in the temporary exhibition field. This experience proved to be fundamental in the post-war period. The propaganda exhibitions were used by the regime to celebrate their majesty and to persuade the masses, such as the famous “Exhibition of the Fascist revolution” (Mostra della rivoluzione fascista, Rome, 1932) or the Exhibition of the Italian Aeronautic Show (Esposizione dell’Aeronautica Italiana, Milan, 1934), the expositions organized by the Triennale of Milan and the trade fairs in Milan and Bari. They also played pivotal roles. Precisely during these events, defined by Giuseppe Pagano as “intelligent shacks” in 1941, the architects proved themselves in an extraordinary hybridization of languages. The experimental nature characterized each setup, conveying architecture, graphics, designs, light designs, and sometimes sounds. The intersection among several artistic languages constituted the ground on which some exhibit solutions developed in the aftermath of the war. However, the most extraordinary results in museography were achieved thanks to the new generation of superintendents and museum directors. Well-educated and illuminated, they shared with the architects the social vision of the museum, which has now reached and taught a wide range of the public. Once limited to the cultured élites and devoted to the conservation of the works of art only, this secular institution is now appointed to educate in art, making visitors understand that what they are observing is part of their life and cultural roots. The report Musei e gallerie d’arte in Italia (Museums and Art galleries In Italy), published in 1953 by Guglielmo de Angelis d’Ossat, General Director of Antiquities and Fine Arts, restates such a conception. It aims to present the guidelines that characterized the new arrangement of 150 Italian museums. Museums are usually hosted inside historic

Fig. C Museum of Palazzo Bianco, Genoa. The exhibition setup by Franco Albini.

buildings, born to be something else (like noble palaces and monasteries). Peremptorily, they need to be modernized according to the updated museographic criteria. The first operation of this renewal, shared by curators and the architects, was a strict selection of the pieces on show to narrow the number of objects squeezed into the exhibition rooms. The un-framed paintings, meaning canvases freed from the non-original frames, are arranged on a single level, at eye height. They stand out on light walls, without oppressive wallpaper or dark shades, and without fake style decors. Heavy wooden furniture and other display cabinets are usually substituted by crystal vitrines held up by slender metallic supports. They allow the work to be viewed from any angle. The new museums banish the half-light from the exhibition rooms. These are flooded by controlled natural light during the day, thanks to several devices, or animated by different artificial lights; light design starts developing in this period. The architects of this great season are fine connoisseurs of the History of Art. They are convinced that exhibiting means exalting the peculiarities of the single work of art, creating a modern space around it, and making the piece understandable to the visitors. Exceptional examples are both temporary and permanent exhibitions, such as the

various works by Carlo Scarpa (the several editions at the Venice Biennale and other exhibitions, the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, the Canova Gypsotheca in Possagno, the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona); Franco Albini’s Museums in Genoa (Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso, and the Treasure Museum of San Lorenzo); BBPR’s Museum of Castello Sforzesco in Milan. The contribution of these architects starts from the premise that the museum is an evolving organism. Inside, the works can be exhibited in turn, and flexibility is the banner under which these setups are imagined. Each exhibition design is conceived exactly for that specific artwork in that specific space. Therefore, the setup itself becomes a concluded work of art. Implying that if one changes one detail, the existing equilibrium crashes, losing its initial meaning as recent restoration has unfortunately demonstrated. Going back to the Vienna Secession’s experimentations and the European Avant-Garde movements, the temporary setups and the Italian Museum refurbishments, realized during the Fifties, propose themselves as models for a new conception of the exhibition setting. They would soon spread all around Europe.

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