Ad.Aurem — Isabella Ferracci

The internship activity involved the design of artifacts to be displayed as part of the "Live Museum, Live Change" exhibition at the Musei Traiani in Rome.

This project was designed for the Atelier Museo Abitato of the Trajan Markets in Rome, to transform it into a place where new visions and uses generate works and narratives in harmony with the "genius loci".

The project aimed to enhance the Trajan Markets site by making it a kaleidoscopic and accessible creative hub.

The activity was carried out in working groups that were assisted by designers, artists, and other professionals resulting in artifacts that carry within them the history and relationships of the markets.

The historical analysis of the place suggests a set of stories that overlap and populate a place saturated with life. The density of stories is manifested in the theme of ruins through an abundance of textures that express the materiality of the place and preserve the marks left by time.

Research

The windows overlooking the Forums from the Markets allow an interesting key to emerge: the perspective from the inside to the outside and vice versa. The link that comes to be established is also that between the ancient inhabitant of the Markets and the contemporary visitor. New and ancient connect through a space-time portal opened by windows, a bridge between yesterday and today, between content and container.

Concept

Texture in the sense of crafting a surface is an easy aspect to grasp within the Trajan Markets Museum, just consider the intricate workings of the marbles in both the columns and statues, but also in the architecture of the museum itself where the brick walls create particular geometries. These are a few examples that underscore how it is possible to see within any surface a reproducible pattern or elements.

The importance of texture is that it is not limited to an act purely superficial, the mark has an expressive drive that represents something and tells of a distant era or a culture different from the ordinary time.

Textures

The proposal

The project interprets the theme of the window and the space-time portal through the use of the mirror.

The mirrored surface reflects the texture of the material in front of it to take it to another temporal dimension, through a kind of portal that links present and past.

The piece of jewelry chosen to represent this concept is the ear cuff, the earring that decorates the ear cup.

Preliminary design proposals

The ear piece was made in the studio of designer and artist Maria Diana Lai in Rome. The production of the front circle and the back flat-circle were made from wax molds and the actual pieces were made by casting. The wire frame, on the other hand, is handcrafted and then joined to the two circles by casting.

The materials used were brass for the frame and back rim, instead silver for the front semicircle.

Production of the design

Final product

Conclusions

Entering Maria Diana Lai's atelier was an extremely formative experience as she showed us not only the artisan technologies she uses but also brought us closer to the knowledge of materials and especially to the world of handcrafted jewelry design and the endless possibilities it offers.

Being able to collaborate with the Trajan Museums was very formative because not only did they open the doors and train us on the history of the markets, but they showed us Rome from new perspectives: those of all the local artists and designers who took part in the project.