Il museo al centro
Video
CLIENT
Università degli Studi di Ferrara,
Bando Giovani 5×1000
YEAR
2024
WHERE
Ferrara (FE)
"The Museum at the Center. Design and narrative strategies for Palazzo Costabili in Ferrara,“ is a research project funded by the University of Ferrara through the ”Giovani 5×1000" call for proposals, conceived by Benedetta Caglioti, Raffaella Cantore, Rachele Dubbini, Francesca Romana Fiano and Gianluca Forgione and developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.
The project's four videos were directed and produced by Plam Studio in 2024, with music compositions by Luca Cei.
The goal is to narrate the reality of Palazzo Costabili, an emblematic building of the city's Renaissance architecture and home to the National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara.
The challenge was to tell the story of an artwork that houses as many artworks and convey the importance of heritage care and protection through a multidisciplinary narrative involving four different disciplines: architecture, archaeology, art history, and literature.
The videos are designed to be cultural pills, full of meaning, in order to intrigue viewers and invite them to explore the museum. The theme of the care traces all the videos: from the care of architectural detail, to the care of friendship, to the myth of Eros and Anteros, and ending in the care of cultural heritage.
Video 1
I love those who love me.
A humanistic architecture
Palazzo Costabili, an expression of the highest moment of the culture of the Estense Court at the end of the 15th century, is the child of a choral design between the craftsmen of the time and its patron, Antonio Costabili.
We find the cultural depth and sensitivity of the patron in the architectural details such as the capitals decorated in the round, the search for symmetry, in the innovative choice of lighting the staircase by means of two portholes facing the sky, and in the engraved decorations on each step. To lead the viewer to seek the care, shots are detailed without revealing the building in its entirety, the still shots as if they were photographs invite contemplation of the architecture.
The text selected for the first video is freely taken from the proem of the poem of couplets by Celius Calcagnini, Anteros sive De Mutuo Amore, in which Costabili's motto is taken up, Diligentes me diligo, in eng I love those who love me, title of the video.
Video 2
Eros and Anteros
The painted myth
In the second video, the viewer enters the Treasure Room, with its distinctive ceiling painted by the painter Garofalo, a spearhead of Italian Renaissance painting.
The myth of Eros and Anteros, a text freely taken from Themistius, dictates the rhythm of the editing and the images are put at the service of the story. Some of the eighteen lunettes perimeter to the ceiling, which are nothing other than the representation of the myth, flow through the video as if they were slides, alternating with close-ups of the painting, the golden medallion and the garden outside the hall. Thanks to the macro-details created, the video is a true extension of the experience of the visit, bridging the distance of the painting's position from the visitor.
Video 3
Lover and Loved by Spina.
The Zeus and Ganymede cup
In the third video, we enter inside the museum, accompanied by the text freely taken from Dionigi di Alicarnasso, Antichità Romane 1.18.3we discover the riches of the city of Spina, evidence of its importance as a hub of Etruscan trade in the Mediterranean, a link between East and West.
In the first part of the video, myths and customs are explored on large craters, cups and plates. The second part opens with an eclipse of the cup of Zeus and Ganymede, a unique and special find not only for the artistic value of the artefact but above all for the symbolic value of the myth depicted.
Thus the object is revealed, with plays of light and shadow, we discover the history of the myth, its details, its symbolism, accompanied by a text freely taken from the Elegie of Teognide and the Fedro of Platone.
Video 4
Not petty care.
Museum Research Spaces
The fourth video recounts the museum's storerooms, located both in the foundations and in the attic of Palazzo Costabili, which turn out to be the places where container and content meet towards a single goal: care.
The vaults of the palace's basement enclose the archaeological finds being catalogued and seized by private individuals, just as the ceiling beams watch over and guard the shelves full of history. In these places, one comes into contact with the “behind the scenes”, where operators and insiders can interact with the objects without the filter of protective showcases. Where the archive is, not the exhibition usable by the outside public, the true feeling of care and preservation takes place (Letter from Raphael and Baldassare Castiglione to Leo X, 1519).
Musical composition
The music accompanying the images and words of the videos is structured on the technique of bicinium, in which two melodies intertwine in counterpoint, which was particularly popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The theme of duality is present in all four episodes: the mullioned windows of the palace, the mutual love between the brothers in the myth, the feeling of communion between the patron and his friends, Zeus and Ganymede, and the care modern people take in preserving and handing down the ancient.
More specifically, in the second episode, which tells the story of Eros and Anteros described in Garofalo's lunettes, the two melodic lines attempt a true madrigal approach to the tale, in a continuous cross-reference between words and sound. In the fourth video, the discovery of the archaeological sites is accompanied by music that grows in intensity as the light is turned on the past, while the melodic lines contrast in an infinite canon.
