DISPLAY. Workshop for Designers of Museum Exhibitions and Stage Sets

Fondazione Fitzcarraldo - Regione Piemonte

"DISPLAY. WORKSHOP FOR DESIGNERS OF MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS AND STAGE SETS"
Turin, Italy | 16-22 February 2003

For download: http://www.blendstudio.it/display/download/display_eng.pdf

THE COURSE
Under the scientific direction of Francois Confino, Italo Rota and Fabrizio Sabelli DISPLAY will present some of the current tendencies in the sector of museum exhibitions in Italy and abroad, augmenting the debate with the innovative contributions which in other countries - but only occasionally in Italy - include the utilization of a stage-set approach and techniques.
The DISPLAY project is based on an awareness that the high quality and innovation of exhibitions are determinant factors of enhancement and attraction for museums and cultural assets.
Within this perspective the designer of museum exhibitions is increasingly called upon to cover the innovative role of “communicator”, a figure whose qualifications derive from a combination of different and complementary professional skills, often resulting from individual, self-taught experience.
In this new role the attention focused on communication with different categories of users increasingly leads to considering set design and the work of stage designers as a reference point for shows, events, exhibitions and presentations of collections, broadening the field of museum science to include professional expertise achieved in other sectors as well.

OBJECTIVES
DISPLAY intends to contribute to the development of these skills for those professionals interested in the various aspects of museum exhibitions and stage design:
- operating within the exhibition project in all of its multifold aspects,
- translating the indications of a design into an effective design concept,
- imagining a space and creating a setting,
- constructing a significant itinerary,
- reconstructing the relations of the object with its virtual or real context,
- communicating with the public, stimulating an emotional and sensorial experience in the visitors
- resolving the problems of lighting technique, acoustics and sound projection.

PROCEDURE AND METHOD
DISPLAY is divided into three stages: one of introduction and presentation of various experiences and approaches by experts (directors of workshops and others) and one of practical work in which the participants, grouped into three thematic workshops, will develop exhibition projects on different themes relating to existing museums. The final stage of DISPLAY will consist of setting up an exhibition which presents the workshop projects and illustrates how the work has been carried out.

The course has been organized in four stages:
- Technical-conceptual preparation with examples taken from the experience of the workshop directors;
- Research on the objectives of the project assigned to each group and assignment of tasks to the participants;
- Planning, creation and realization of the exhibition visualized in virtual form or using three-dimensional models with professional guidance by the workshop managers and experts;
- Critical comment on the work within the context of the final exhibition.

ENROLLMENT
DISPLAY is addressed to:
architects and professionals interested in the subject of museum exhibitions/set design;
and operators in the marketing, communications and organization of events and exhibitions.

Recent graduates in Architecture, not exceeding six in number, will be admitted to participate in DISPLAY.

Applicants must compile and send the application for enrollment (download from website www.fitzcarraldo.it) accompanied by their curriculum vitae and a letter stating the reasons for the request.
Those enrolled may indicate a first and a second choice of workshop, which will be taken into consideration, as far as possible, in assigning the places.

Applications for enrollment must arrive by January 31, 2003 (by post or fax) at the following address:

DISPLAY. Atelier per progettisti di allestimenti museali
c/o Blend
Via Governolo, 34 - 10128 Turin, Italy
fax 011 590691

PROFILES
Workshop Directors:

Francois Confino, Swiss architect, creator of numerous arrangements for exhibitions, museums and international expositions. He currently works on projects all over the world (Brazil, the United States, Japan. Dubai, Europe) and particularly in Italy where he designed the Turin National Cinema Museum located in the Mole Antonelliana and where he is carrying out new projects at Barolo, Genoa and Catania.

Italo Rota, Italian architect. Among other projects, he has collaborated with Gae Aulenti on the Musee D'Orsay and the museum of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He recently won the competition for the new Museum of the 20th Century at the Arengario in Milan and organized the show for the stylist Roberto Cavalli and for the 50th anniversary of Italian fashion. He has taught in Paris, Milan, Lausanne and New
York.

Fabrizio Sabelli, Italian anthropologist, methodologist of cultural projects, set designer and author. Professor at the Universities of Geneva, Neuchatel, Lugano and at the School of Advanced Studies on the Applied Arts (La Chaux-de-Fonds). Responsible for the designing and arranging of thematic exhibitions held in various museums, in particular the Ethnographic Museum of Neuchatel and the Museum of Communications in Berne.

Contributions by:

Pio Baldi, architect, director of DARC (Contemporary Art and Architecture Department) of the Ministry for Cultural Affairs, Rome.
Carmen Bueno Sanchez, general manager of INGENIA, Seville.
Leonardo Sangiorgi, Studio Azzurro, Milan.
Rajeev Sethi, architect and set designer, New Delhi.
Francois Schuiten, set designer and illustrator, Brussels.

The Fitzcarraldo Foundation is an independent centre for planning, research, training and documentation on cultural, arts and media management, economics and policies, at the service of those who create, practise, take part in, produce, promote and support the arts and culture.

DISPLAY forms part of the plurennial program of education, launched by the Fitzcarraldo Foundation with the support of the Region of Piemonte - Cultural Affairs Department, with the objective of providing occasions for the updating, encounter and debate of operators and professionals engaged in the activity of management and enhancement of museums and the cultural heritage.

Blend, a studio specialized in the planning, realization and communication of cultural projects, is collaborating in the creation of DISPLAY, coordinating its organization and communication.

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DISPLAY is a project by
Fitzcarraldo Foundation

under the scientific direction of
Francois Confino
Italo Rota
Fabrizio Sabelli

Organisation and communication
Blend. Progetti e comunicazione

Information

Blend. Progetti e comunicazione
Via Governalo, 34 - 10128 Torino
Tel. +39 011 590691 - fax +39 011 590691
[email protected]
www.blendstudio.it

Fondazione Fitzcarraldo
Corso Mediterraneo, 94 - 10129 Torino
Tel. +39 011 5099247 - Fax +39 011 503361
[email protected]
www.fitzcarraldo.it

In cooperation with
EUPHON