Client: Fondazione museo storico del Trentino (TN)

Project: "Historically ABC" - graphic design

December 2009

Exhibiting history: The reinvention of a genre. Black and white. Two abandoned tunnels, which are dark and empty (useless) because the traffic has been routed elsewhere. This pair of tunnels are about 300 metres long and bore through the rock from South to North and North to South, parallel to each other
and the River Adige. The town centre is a stone’s throw away.
Many, perhaps too many metaphors come to mind: to do with speed and traffic and flows. But the oxygen of this urban project comes from just a few clearly defined assumptions. The straightforward (intelligent) reuse of a defunct urban structure (analogy: the High Line planted routeway in New York); the reinvention of a well-established typology (the ultra-traditional historical museum); the team work (Trento-Stanford-NYC-Bolzano) which networking makes possible in today’s world; and close collaboration between local institutions (the Trento Province’s governing council and the Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino) which decide the themes for this space but allow them to be interpreted freely. The tunnels reopened in 2008 with an exhibition called “I Trentini e la Grande Guerra” [The People of Trentino and the Great War]. The idea was that, if it proved to be a success, this inaugural exhibition would be a kind of a prototype, and that’s exactly what has happened. Using very much the same formula – sequencing in sections, immersion in black darkness and educational material in white – though with a rather different layout, a second exhibition called “Storicamente ABC” [Historically ABC] is now due to open. This time, one major spin-off landmark in the area will be two themed gardens at the Southand North entrances to the tunnels. (anna foppiano)


2009 Edition: “Historically ABC”A panoramic history of the Trentino region sectioned into an alphabet, much like a Munarian children’s book. The itinerary is contained within the black tunnel, which is divided into a large passage where enormous sculptural letters extend into hieroglyphics which unfold,
in turn, both macro- and micro-histories made of filmed sequences; and into a narrow gallery, in which the human topography
of the region is represented by means of talking heads.
For the white tunnel, a new modular system of exhibition spaces and open rooms is developed.
A set of teaching gardens will frame the entrance and the exit of the tunnels, accompanied by detailed horticultural signage, so as to reinforce the perception of the tunnels as allegorical passages from one limit to the other of the Trento region. (jeffrey t. schnapp)


Filmwork / Schnapp / Terragni / Gruppe Gut Il The Tunnels project team – an interdisciplinary group located in several different places – is coordinated by FilmWork-Trento, an independent production company that operates across a wide range of fields (art-history-architecture), and comprises Jeffrey T. Schnapp (USA, 1954), who teaches Comparative Literature at the Stanford University, where he founded the Stanford Humanities Lab; Elisabetta Terragni (Italy, 1961), an architect who lives, works and teaches in Como and NYC (Studio Terragni Architetti); and the Gruppe Gut (Bolzano), for the graphic design. A virtual version of the project can be found on Second Life.