PARMA - "If we want museums to be tools suitable for the times we live in, our mission must be understanding the past, not exaltation. We must not decorate rooms, but make our heritage accessible to allow us to understand what to recover and what to refuse: values must be continuously renegotiated ".
Simone Verde, director of the Nuova Pilotta in Parma, a splendid monumental complex of over 40 thousand square meters, has been undergoing complete redevelopment for many months, is achieving the goal of creating a museum that is finally contemporary and in line with international standards.
Certainly not an easy undertaking, which concerns the rearrangement of spaces but also the revolution from the scientific point of view of a place that Verde, interviewed by ANSA, does not hesitate to define "incredible, unique in the world, developed in the early 1500s. . It's like a fossil from the beginnings of museology ".
After taking office in 2017, the director has set his hand on a mammoth institution, not fully exploited, in which finally thanks to a 2016 Mibact provision it was possible to bring together the many highly prestigious realities that revolve around Palazzo della Pilotta, which have remained separated too long: the spectacular Farnese Theater, completed in 1619 and inaugurated in 1628, the National Gallery of Parma, which houses the prestigious art collection of the Farnese family created starting from the Renaissance (among the masterpieces also the Scapiliata by Leonardo da Vinci ), the National Archaeological Museum of Parma, established in 1760, the Palatine Library, built in 1761, the Bodonian Museum, the oldest museum of printing in Italy, inaugurated in 1963. "When I arrived at the Pilotta there were big problems both for the conservation and management, even of the architectural parts. The collections were in poor condition and there was a great scientific chaos ", he explains," then have
I love to undertake a work of redevelopment and redevelopment, which also meant re-conceiving the institution from a museological point of view.
Enhancement and protection of the rest must go together: we are carrying out a scientific and intellectual regeneration project costing 5 million euros, perhaps even more, all public funds, to which other private sponsorships are added ".
The works are still in progress and have never stopped, not even during the lockdown, a period "used to carry on the design of the new museum. We are the museum in Italy that has probably opened more construction sites, we have 7 opened in parallel" he explains.
The face of the Nuova Pilotta is therefore now modified by "regenerated" environments, restoration of works and above all by the opening of new sections, with "new installations that are the result of research work: these are permanent exhibitions, which will remain until that the scientific system will be valid. Then it will change ", says Verde.
There are also many collaborative projects to combine art with theater, music and cinema;
also a dedicated channel (active from 29 December) born from the collaboration with QubìTv, webtv on demand.
"The museum must be in progress, because it must document what is happening in scientific research. Unfortunately, there are few museums that do research. We are still too tied to the historic home, and we make arrangements that give back an idea of monumentality and decorativeness of the spaces" , he continues, underlining the particularity of the Pilotta also from the point of view "of architectural iconography. In the center there is a monumental staircase, copied from the Escorial, and it is the first imperial staircase built in Italy. Here, however, we must not surprise the public. with the beauty of the exhibits, because the museum is a place where one acquires awareness of history.
This is why we have included a section with the history of the collections, precisely to understand why some works have become important for a community at a given moment. "If museums are in difficulty, it is because" no one reinvents them, which is why few go there.
They are places that must find a usefulness in the present: every museum is a form of school, not for education but for research.
Bringing students to museums does not mean inculcating values in the little ones, but offering schools tools for emancipation and comparison between historical narratives and documents ", he says. What must be the role of museums?" The museum must be a research center alive, participatory, present in the public and political sphere to create cultural short circuits.
In Italy many museums have embarked on this renewal thanks to the Franceschini reform ".
Did you think it right to close museums in the health emergency?
"Everyone has to do their job, but I think they should be closed: sometimes there are symbolic acts that must be done".
And what do you think of the online programming that many cultural institutions have set up?
"In a world invaded by copies, the museum that exhibits the originals maintains its own separate statute, which must be preserved. A work of art from the past expresses the culture of a specific era. So I think we need to be cautious: risk it is to think that the museum experience can be replaced by copies, and this is not the case ".
What needs to be done to bring museums closer to the general public?
Could the fame of influencers like Chiara Ferragni also serve or is it against?
"There's nothing wrong with that, everyone obviously has the right to enter the museum, but everything must be done according to the canons of the cultural heritage code," he says.
"In reality, however, museums need researchers and research grants: we attract the public with intelligent exhibitions and contemporary artistic activities. For this reason at Pilotta we have collaborations with music festivals, theaters, cinemas: it is very important to open up to contemporary artistic languages. , we must regenerate the art of the past through forms of intellectuality of the present ".
