PROJECT

An important philological operation, such as the "in vitro" reconstruction of a significant "sample" of the imposing Gonzaga collection - as ordered and arranged in the first half of the seventeenth century - required an installation capable of reconstructing that system of relationships, which had determined the exhibition choices desired and pursued by the 6th Duke.

Without resorting to forced scenographic or theatrical settings, it was chosen to operate in an exhibition space deliberately decontextualized and made neutral, where the rooms of the museum of the Dukes of Mantua are recalled to memory and defined through the sinuous panels shapes, a sophisticated lighting project and the close dialogue between the works, relocated after many years close to each other, according to the inventory mapping of 1626-1627.

Basically, has been reconstituted, with an abstraction typical in contemporary art but extremely new in a seventeenth-century context, a narrative that was violently interrupted centuries ago. Not so much through the recreation of the spaces of the Palazzo Ducale, therefore, but through a decanting process that recounts uses and atmospheres of those spaces. An alternation of rooms (Logion Serato, Corridoio di Santa Barbara, Galleria della Mostra, Galleria dei Marmi, Duke Ferdinando's Apartment with the Camerino delle Muse, the library-wardrobe and the Treasure Chamber) that the 6th Duke had clearly distinguished in their functions - sometimes public, sometimes very private - now re-proposed in the exhibition path thanks to the expansion or narrowing of spaces and the skilful use of light: totally artificial in the "parade" rooms or mixed with the natural one in more intimate and "domestic" environments, like Ferdinando's apartment, to the point of being almost completely canceled in the Camera del Tesoro: a magical place where the Casa Gonzaga's joys shine.

Attention to flows, service areas and enhancement of the works were some of the priority objectives of the project.

Inside the Fruttiere of Palazzo Te, after a "filter" area to "set" the visitor, a soft and diffused light envelops and absorbs him, while the most significant pictorial works, thanks to an original set-up device, seem to float in a cloud of light, which cancels the support structures and therefore the depth of the field. Moment of relaxation from tension, but also a privileged observation point of the path taken, is the sort of terrace - living designed to give the visitor the possibility of rest and deepening, with books that can be consulted on the Gonzagas and on the collection and with a contribution multimedia on the history of Palazzo Ducale: an elevated area, strongly characterized by an architectural element of great impact such as a truncated conical wooden structure, which develops up to 8 meters high and 6 meters in diameter: "an explosion" of light, which allows you to admire some of the main areas of the route at 360 degrees.