New SNSF project at the Academy of Architecture

A new Research Project titled Visibility Reclaimed. Experiencing Rome's First Public Museums (1733-1870). An Analysis of Public Audiences in a Transnational Perspective [100016_212922]. Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Project is directed by Carla Mazzarelli, full professor at the Institute of History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA) at the USI Academy of Architecture. It relies on the collaboration of a research team that includes both internal ISA project partners (Christoph Frank and Daniela Mondini) and important international museum institutions and universities, such as Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid (David Garcia Cueto), Durham University (Stefano Cracolici), Università Roma Tre (Giovanna Capitelli), and Università degli Studi La Sapienza (Chiara Piva). This is USI's first research project in the field of Museology and Museography studies and aims to promote its role in the history and theory of architecture and art at the Academy and USI. As Carla Mazzarelli, project leader, explains, "the research builds on three initial questions: how was the public museum defined and perceived in its early days, in the sense of an architectural space being defined, but also as a place of encounter and shared experience? Which and how many audiences were accessing the early public museums? How many and which audiences were excluded?" The research questions place the "embodied encounter" at the centre of historical and critical reflection on the museum, which invites us to go beyond the visual dimension that exhibition space assumes and to probe its characteristics and outcomes in light of the material experience of museum space and collectorship.