The Palazzo della Triennale represents, perhaps, the first example of modern museum design in the Italian architectural history. The terse rationalist language applied to the metaphor of a cognitive itinerary expresses the clear simplicity of a functional premise. The exhibition hall of the Design Museum has precisely this value, the synthesis between a design approach that is not formal but conceptual, and a minimal, singular architectural language. The recovery of this museum backdrop seemed absolutely appropriate and indispensable for the staging of the exhibition “Serie e Fuoriserie”. The hypothesis behind this interpretation of the Design Museum focused on the close relationship between the processes of invention and production; the selection of products and their arrangement established a network of relationships among ideas, techniques, needs, usage modes and the market, radically bypassing questions of form, taste and stylistic identity of the objects. The exhibit effect to be achieved was that of a surplus of objects, also dissimilar or in dissonant combinations, simply offered to the gaze of visitors, and supplying them with a key of interpretation through relationships connected with given modes of design and results of production. The exhibition narrated the stories of these objects, whose history is precisely the criterion behind their presence and position in the exhibition scenario. The apparent disorder and confusion of the collection, in this exhibit design concept, therefore called for maximum abstraction. The Corian screens assembled and welded in continuous ribbons hung from Muzio’s beams formed conceptual areas simply by “enclosing” a sequence of tables, and serving as a white sheet on which to write captions. The tables displayed groupings of objects at a comfortable height for viewing, but also functioned like the tables of a workshop, on which objects are placed to catch the attention of the visitor. It is a rational, pithy installation that eschews emotional impact; the sole concession to theatrical effect is the sophisticated perforation work of the Corian, offering a glimpse, like a substrate, of graphic decoration backlit by the natural light from the large industrial windows. The hanging screens, with an intentionally precarious look with respect to the presence of the building, reinforce the subtle, diaphanous presence of the exhibit design, between objects and architecture.

Total surface sqm 700