The research project The Form of Museums in Italy after World War II: A Historical Review for Contemporary Times intends to systematize the knowledge of documentary, visual and written sources, with the goal of arriving at an overview of museographic and museological renewal in Italy between the II World War and the 1970s. Such a historical review may no longer be delayed; there is too great a need for detailed, documented critical reflection at this time, when we are preparing to ¿modernize¿ these very museums to cater to contemporary museology and museography.
In the wake of wartime destruction, the urge to rebuild monumental architectures, rearrange collections and open archaeological sites led to a radical renewal of museum spaces and collections display. The "museums of the reconstruction" (Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Musei della ricostruzione in Italia, tra disfatta e rivincita della storia, 1982) have to this day remained among the loftiest witnesses to a time of civil commitment and creativity in the service of repurposing and renewing the form of museums and, at the same time, museums¿ cultural and educational functions. Up and down Italy, heritage conservation went hand in hand with the need to educate the public and make the works accessible. The museum reconstruction effort catered to both of these requirements as part of a State-led project.
We interpret the post-WW II museum as a discursive institutional "device" governed by narrative paradigms germane to bolstering Italy's cultural identity (Giorgio Agamben, Che cos'è un dispositivo, 2006). To this end, the relationship between museums and historiography will be a central aspect of the project.
Recovering this history through archival documentation and iconographic sources will make it possible to show models that are valid today and able to assist contemporary museology and museography in the extremely delicate matter of updating the form and content of these historicized spaces.
As noted earlier, post-WW II Italian museums have for the most part been studied on a spot-basis, via sectoral studies oriented towards pursuing individual projects and/or individual personalities, focusing in particular on emerging architects who from early on were recognized and celebrated for their work in the museographic field.
In consequence, we lack an accurate study of the phenomenon as a whole. As mentioned above, it remains true that museum renovation swept across the entire nation, north to south, touching upon even the most outlying areas. There is also a lack of overall wide-ranging research reviewing historical progress from a perspective that highlights the connection post-war museography had with experiences from the previous decades (the '30s and '40s) and with the architectural culture of Rationalism, highlighting the evolution of the cultural process during the reconstruction years (M. Dalai Emiliani, "Faut-il bruler le Louvre?". Temi del dibattito internazionale sui musei nei primi anni '30 del Novecento e le esperienze italiane, Venice 2008; A. Huber, Il museo italiano. La trasformazione di spazi storici in spazi espositivi. Attualità dell'esperienza museografica degli anni '50, Milan 1997).
Today as in the past, quite unfairly this dearth has led to debate about museums in Italy being marginalized compared with international consideration of the topic (as in K. Schubert, Museo. Storia di un'idea. Dalla Rivoluzione Francese ad oggi, Milan 2004; Il nuovo Museo, ed. C. Ribaldi, I, Milan 2005).
The project has been conceived to fill this void, drawing on collaboration at scientific level and in terms of making its results available with the Archivio del Moderno in Mendrisio, an advanced history of architecture and engineering study centre (www.archiveofmodern.org). In this project, it will support the research conducted by two researchers in the Archive and will be able to contribute to focusing the issues relating to the reception of Italian museography abroad, with specific reference to the Canton of Ticino.