Last spring, for the first time in 500 years, the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice opened their doors to the public, revealing the new home of the Generali Group’s The Human Safety Net Foundation (THSN) on the third floor of the iconic building, the Interior, Exhibition & Multimedia Design aspect of which was conceived by the Migliore+Servetto studio, under the artistic direction of Davide Rampello.
The intervention by Migliore+Servetto – which includes the interior design of all the spaces in the building, the heart of the work being located on the third floor with a café, library and exhibition path – outlines an innovative and experimental approach aimed at generating sustainable and inclusive spaces, created “to share” and conceived in relation to visitors’ behaviours, expectations and needs, with the aim of making the intervention as immersive and engaging as possible.
To strengthen the immersive component, the entire “A World of Potential” exhibition was conceived by Migliore+Servetto as a progression of experiences that develop by following a prologue, three acts and an epilogue that lead visitors to discover their potential, starting from the values identified by the curators Orna Cohen and Andreas Heinecke of DSE – Dialogue for Social Enterprise: creativity, kindness, perseverance, gratitude, curiosity, hope, social intelligence and teamwork. These themes – which are rooted in the research conducted by American scholars Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson in the early 2000s that led to the definition of personality strengths according to the VIA (Values in action) method – were translated by the Studio into 16 interactive machines à montrer, with the aim of involving diverse audiences and inviting them to measure their values and potential with devices, stimulating reflection on the themes of inclusion, innovation and sustainability.
In sequence, starting from the entrance, the values and potential of the human being are made concrete thanks to an effective use of technology: a succession of installations guide viewers on a path of self-discovery. As such, the first room, “Teatrino Veneziano” (Venetian Puppet Theatre), presents a cross-section of Venetian culture through an animation featuring the most famous puppets. Next, the “Introduction” and “Prologue” areas are transition spaces designed to bring visitors closer to the values on display and the activities of the Foundation. The “Curiosity” installation is presented as a multiscope, where viewers can explore the visual and acoustic content by looking through the frames in an engaging process of introspection. In “Perseverance”, at the entrance to the second room, the use of BrainCo technology makes it possible to visualise the various stages of your own and others’ concentration. This is followed by the installations dedicated to “Creativity”, “Hope”, “Social Intelligence” and “Gratitude”, where technology and gestures are combined to make visitors become active protagonists by asking them to leave their own personal contributions. “Teamwork & Leadership” and “THSN” create an immersive environment through interaction and lead to the last room, “Nest”, where an over-sized nest incorporates data related to the results of THSN’s activity and its impact in the regions in which it operates.
“Art and culture allow us to get to know ourselves better, so the new home of The Human Safety Net and its exhibition space are based on this fundamental concept, with a view to close attention on sustainable social innovation,” say Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto. “We worked on a project for the space that would express a new concept of hospitality and a strong identity for the Foundation, and which would curate the relationship with the public. The result is a space designed to welcome the viewer in an empathetic way, with different rhythms and times, reinterpreting the key symbols – nest, table, mirror – while making a constant reference to materials, design and environments. Within this, the richness of Venetian culture and territory remains a wide-ranging heritage to draw from and have echo within the Procuratie.”
Having been engaged in the research and use of materials with a high expressive potential for years, the Migliore + Servetto studio chose to use the i-Mesh weave – a technical and sustainable material from the world of boating – within the project for the home of The Human Safety Net.
Inside the Corte Maruzzi, an installation sees 22 tapestries bearing the logos of The Human Safety Net and Generali arranged on different levels of the internal facades, adding a sign of strong identity with extreme lightness. Here, the weave designed ad hoc using technical and sustainable i-Mesh fibres guarantees transparency and permeability to the internal facades, intertwining red fibres on the white texture that refer to the colours of the two brands.
The Studio also returned to the weave of natural and artificial fibres that comprise the i-Mesh mesh for the exhibition path on the third floor, where it is used both in the introductory tunnel, which invites visitors to immerse themselves in the exhibition, and in the Gratitude installation, which uses the permeability of the weft to build a dynamic relationship with the surroundings through reflections and transparencies.
The use of this high performance and versatile material also allows great freedom in the composition of space, adding an artisanal technical value to the entire intervention: through an analogue process that starts from the design of the weft to the weaving of the filament, it is possible to produce infinite configurations and interesting plays of lights/shadows and colours.
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