{"id":4598,"date":"2026-08-21T11:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sogandnobahar.com\/?page_id=4598"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:26:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T15:26:49","slug":"museo-del-bijou-casalmaggiore","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sogandnobahar.com\/it\/museo-del-bijou-casalmaggiore\/","title":{"rendered":"Museo del Bijou di Casalmaggiore"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Antique\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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MUSEO DEL BIJOU DI CASALMAGGIORE<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Exhibition Design \u00b7 Spatial Design \u00b7 Recovered Materials \u00b7 Macro Photography \u00b7 Art Direction<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Casalmaggiore, Italia \u00b7 2022 and 2023<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Three hundred glass jewels. A display built from glass nobody thought was precious.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>

In 2022 the United Nations declared the International Year of Glass. The Museo del Bijou di Casalmaggiore, the only museum in Italy dedicated to bijou, marked it with over three hundred pieces from private collections and its own archive. Two centuries of Italian glass jewellery, curated by Bianca Cappello and Augusto Panini, under the patronage of the Comitato Nazionale Italiano AIHV.<\/p>

Bianca Cappello<\/a> called me before the design existed.<\/p>

What the museum had was six mushroom vitrines, each divided into four sections of roughly fifty centimetres, and six rectangular tables. What it had to display three hundred pieces on was white fabric supports and black plastic heads.<\/p>

She wrote that she wanted something different and astonishing.<\/p>

She already had ideas. Modular crystal sheets stacked into levels. Recycled glass recovered from processing plants. Offcuts from foundries. Glass bricks she had found online. The bricks cost too much and the rest needed a supplier. There was no budget for new casework.<\/p>

I did not use any of them.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Giorgio Vigna's cuff resting on a cut bottle base.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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“Looking for something magnificent that is right there, just out of sight.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“La ricerca di qualcosa di magnifico che \u00e8 proprio l\u00ec, appena fuori dalla vista.” <\/em>From the project moodboard, written before the first bottle was cut.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Murano mosaic pendants.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Material<\/strong><\/p>

The catalogue for the exhibition opens on the idea that a glass artwork is precious above all because it is unique.<\/p>

I went the other way. I looked for the glass object nobody considers precious at all.<\/p>

The bottle. Thrown out by the crate, every day, everywhere. It is also the oldest container for something worth saying. A message in a bottle is an older idea than any piece in that room.<\/p>

Discarded glass holding collected glass. Same substance, different stage of its life, and the visitor reads both at once without being told.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Collecting<\/strong><\/p>

Sixty bottles, from bars and from neighbours.<\/p>

Green, clear, blue. Different shoulders, different necks, different bases. The range of shapes I could collect was the range of supports I would have, so the collecting was already the design.<\/p>

Washed by hand. Labels off, glue off, glass clear enough to sit under museum light.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Collected from bars and neighbours.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Washed by hand, sixty of them.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Cutting<\/strong><\/p>

Cut with a face shield and cut-resistant gloves.<\/p>

Every edge ground by hand. Sanding drums on a rotary tool first, then finer, until the rim was safe to touch and true enough to sit flat.<\/p>

The cut cylinder became a plinth. The base became a disc. The neck held what would otherwise have lain flat on fabric. Twenty-two discs at eight centimetres among them, counted before they were cut because the layouts were already drawn.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Face shield, cut-resistant gloves.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Sanding drums, then finer.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Every edge ground by hand.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Background<\/strong><\/p>

Then the third register. Macro photographs of glass, printed and mounted as the backgrounds of the vitrines. Cut crystal. The curve of a bottle in blue.<\/p>

At that scale glass stops being a container and becomes a landscape. The jewels sit in front of it.<\/p>

Discarded glass underneath. Magnified glass behind. Precious glass in the middle.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Macro photograph. Glass behind glass.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The curve of a bottle, magnified.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The System <\/strong><\/p>

The brief asked for the interior of one module of each type, as a template.<\/p>

I delivered a system instead. Scheme A and scheme B alternating across the four quadrants of every mushroom vitrine, with the backgrounds swapping between them. Four variants for the tables.<\/p>

Six vitrines, twenty-four quadrants, no two identical, built from one kit of parts.<\/p><\/div>