The exhibition Casa Romana is actually a 12 chapters long, spatial novel, 12 hours in a day of a rich Roman family – man and woman of the house, children, friends, lovers, clients, servants. Each chapter of the narrative, heard through audio, is a scene on a stage and a separate setting in the exhibition. The exhibition shows numerous beautiful archaeological objects from the Roman domestic life, mixed with home ware, art, movies and fashion from the 18th century up until today, inspired by the roman style.
For this project, I was designer, curator and art director. The museum’s experts brought in all the knowledge and objects from the museum’s collection and loans from other museums. I selected contemporary works of artists and designers like Tjep, Dolche&Gabbana, Fabio Novembre, Ruud van Empel, Olivier van Herpt, Scholten Baijings. With botanist Piet Oudolf we selected 36 images of his gardens in radiant colours from sunrise to sunset, to surround the exhibition space.
The scenography is open, bright, festive and very spatial, inviting the visitor to walk from chapter to chapter in a relaxed routing; a warm and welcoming domus.
In cooperation with Jeanine Aalfs and Studio Berry Slok (graphics)
Photography by Bas Czerwinski
Delivered 2017
Trailer by Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
