CARRARA – The Marble Museum is preparing to change its skin, this was discussed today during the Culture commission chaired by Gian Maria Nardi. The redevelopment and installation works of the Marble Museum will begin in the next few months in Viale XX Settembre. The interventions will be carried out by the Municipality, as owner of the civic collections, together with the Chamber of Commerce of North-West Tuscany, owner of the property, on the basis of the memorandum of understanding signed in February 2023. The design of the new Museum of Marmo was commissioned by the Opera engineering studios of engineer Davide De Carli and architect Paolo Camaiora together with their respective collaborators.
The first works to start will concern the building that houses the museum where we will proceed with: new waterproofing of the roof; verification and total restoration of photovoltaic panels; construction of a new electrical system; demolition of non-fireproof internal materials; revisiting the escape and escape routes. To date, Studio Opera Engineering has already created and delivered the fire prevention certificate to the provincial fire brigade command and the construction site should soon open.
Immediately afterwards it will be the turn to begin work on the external area of the museum for which the architect Camaiora was responsible for designing an overall redevelopment including new routes, a new external electrical system and a new lighting system. The executive project in this case too has already been delivered and we are only waiting for the final steps necessary to start the work.
In parallel with the structural interventions, phase 2 of the design of the new museum layout was started, entrusted to the architect Camaiora. Phase 1 of the assignment has recently concluded which includes: the survey of the internal exhibition spaces, the mapping of the works, the additions and all possible problems. Phase 2 will be carried out in synergy and in coordinated activity with the director of the museum, Stefano Genovesi, who developed the proposal for the new exhibition, and with the supervision of the Superintendence of Lucca.
“The machine that will lead us to the new Marble Museum is underway. In the coming months the works exhibited in the rooms of the Marble Museum will be transferred, thus allowing the start of the renovation works – explains the Councilor for Culture Gea Dazzi -. ‘Romana Marmora’ will be inaugurated at CARMI on May 25th. Stories of emperors, gods and quarrymen’, the exhibition dedicated to the Roman quarry of Fossacava. The exhibition, which will close in January 2025, will lead us into the year in which the Marble Museum is expected to reopen to the public.”
“Pending the musealization project, which is drawn up in synergy with the museum director, a series of interventions are planned to eliminate existing additions and where possible the restoration of some openings, a new lighting system based on the new arrangement of the finds, new colors of the surfaces, new displays, a new and effective exhibition and a very precise philological and chronological path – underlines the architect Paolo Camaiora -. A museum that becomes an active and lively part of the city, that is open all year round and that lives by self-generating every day with cultural initiatives and events linked to natural stone, to the world that surrounds it and that has made marble, for more than two thousand years, the everlasting witness of the life and industriousness of man and the city”.
“The museum – adds the director Stefano Genovesi, who was unable to participate in the commission – will focus on an exhibition area, which will tell the story of the excavation of marble from its origins up to the past centuries, on the marble library, one of the most complete in the world, on a multimedia pavilion, in which the many stories collected will be narrated in an interactive and engaging way, and on spaces dedicated to temporary exhibitions dedicated to current marble processing, which will thus link the archaeological and historical story to the visitor’s current experience . The museum, geographically located between the city and the coast, will constitute the privileged gateway to the history of the area for tourists, while the inhabitants of Carrara will be given back a city space in which they can share, in a renewed and modern guise, a heritage unique cultural”.
