“We have heard about one particular custom of the British Navy. All the rope used by the Royal Fleet, from the thickest to the thinnest, is twined in such a way that a red thread runs through all of them; it is impossible to remove the thread without undoing the rope, and that means that even the smallest piece of rope can be identified as property of the Crown.” (J.W. Goethe, Elective Affinities, chap. II)
The guiding thread of a journey such as this is not immediate nor easily understood; it is intrinsic and needs to be unravelled. The project for a virtual museum and the work undertaken to organise it are open to any number of possible interpretations, each one rooted in the often approximate point of view of its proponent… Nevertheless, it exists and is clear in the mind of the designers.
The project for the museum has two basic objectives: the first, immediate objective, was to create for the first time ever a museum – the railway itself – that does not actually exist except, paradoxically, in its constant everydayness, in its silent daily presence, without potential visitors being aware of its existence, precisely because, unconsciously, they are accustomed to experiencing it from within, without realising it is there…
The second objective, which is less immediate only because it is necessarily spread out over time, was to begin organising material and ideas for the 150th anniversary of the railway, a story that for the first time ever will have to be told bearing in mind that the most recent 25-year period – the jubilee year is the year usually chosen for commemorations – is completely different to the 125 years that preceded it and quite exceptional in terms of events, changes and approaches to the future, which never before have been so divergent from the starting point of the company…
What then are we talking about?
We are talking about an idea, the idea of the Railway, a complex, global, variegated paradigm, which today more than ever – despite the varied and fragmented paths taken by the organisation – is perceived as an indissoluble “unicum” (train, track, transport, sustainability, efficiency, punctuality, comfort), the narration of which could not, even intentionally, ever be split up into a series of separate stories.
A Railway that today, possibly unconsciously, is presumably the clearest and most concentrated demonstration of an Historic and Cultural Legacy, one of legal significance, to be passed on to the future generations in a consistent and value-based manner, the basic concept underlying the design of this journey.
The railway is infrastructure that becomes territory, that changes and transforms territory to improve it, to make it fit for the best possible use by its beneficiaries... in other words, it is a special tool for living the present better and imagining a better future for the generations who follow us.
Increasingly, our way of life is characterised by the pressure of time, by goals to achieve, by the transformation of the concept of work into a challenge in order to raise performance... But the conditions normally imposed by speed – a lack of time to look, reflect and analyse – are the price we pay, a relentless, never-ending rush, to the detriment of a more considered assessment of our surroundings, of how we really move and, ultimately, to a large extent, to the possible detriment of what things really are, at the service of what we would like them to be...
The museum route has been designed with the intention of re-establishing a light, sustainable, thread for a re-reading of history through images we are no longer accustomed to understanding, for a reawakening of the memory of certain objects that many youngsters today have never even had the possibility to use, for explanations of what the “operation” of a Railway actually involves, for an encounter with a public that uses the train as a customary means of travel but has never investigated its dynamic and technological evolution… for a re-reading of original historical texts that evoke a completely different world, one that has just about disappeared but is always a source of unending curiosity.
The display areas have been developed to assist this didactic approach to telling our story and explaining its characteristic specialist technology with a selection of images that best represent this very long journey through the description they offer.
The designers hope that what is now necessarily an experimental collection will become a permanent, constantly expanding museum, as well as a space for investigations of sector-specific themes similar to temporary exhibitions, for which it could provide an ideal venue, since it can be reached by unlimited numbers of visitors and curious “passers-by”.
Lastly, mention must be made of the element that guarantees the spirit of the entire project: the live reading of the historic descriptions, an unusual way of giving a voice to the images and the passing of time.
This step is the least obvious but no less significant third reason for this museum “creation”: meeting people through storytelling and thus overturning the initial statement: from infrastructure that becomes territory, now we have people becoming part of the infrastructure, comprising it and becoming a participant because they acquire the right tools to investigate it… in a light-hearted, carefree way, yet consciously encouraged by their memories to contribute to its story…
Edoardo Adamuccio