La follia reclusa | museo di San Servolo
La follia reclusa – Museo di San Servolo
The “Museo del manicomio di San Servolo - la follia reclusa” is a permanent exhibition on the history of the insane asylum of Venice, opened on San Servolo island from the 18th century to 1978. The museum displays documents, photographs, scientific instruments and restraint devices together with objects made by the patients.
In conceiving the exhibition layout and communicating system, Paola Fortuna aimed at transmitting the observer the profound humanity of the thousands of people who were forcibly enclosed in the structure. It was important to create an involvement based neither on inattentive curiosity nor on artificial emotionality. The project therefore provides a dialogue between the objects tidily put in the cases and jumbo-size images telling the story of the asylum and its everyday life. The visiting route is organized according to three colours - red, lagoon-green and blue - each chosen for its capacity to evoke and explain the meaning of every section: the rueful restraint techniques, the experimentation of alternative cures, the different forms of therapy. The large images have the task to define the spaces and accompany the visitors also by means of explicative panels where a measured typography helps find a balance between information and the particular theme.
Categories visual identity | exhibition design
Client architetct Barbara Accordi
Year 2005 – 2006
Photo credits Stefano Ghesini | Fondazione San Servolo's archive