The scenography for the inaugural exhibition at mudac TRAIN ZUG TRENO TREN Rencontrons-nous à la gare was designed by the Interior Architecture Department, in the studio Youri Kravtchenko, assisted by Manon Portera and Camille Bagnoud. As a public institution, mudac (Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts) has sought to consolidate its links with HEAD – Genève in order to provide its students with a first professional project. To this end, the scenography project was introduced into the Interior Architecture Department’s programme for the autumn 2020 semester.
The airport novel Terre-des-Fins was used as a basis for this scenography. In an interdisciplinary approach, the three authors, Bruno Pellegrino, Aude Seigne and Daniel Vuataz, took part in various work sessions with students from HEAD – Genève and mudac. These exchanges helped refine a set design that aimed to reflect the link between the inaugural exhibition and the novel.
Of the eight projects offered by the students, the one by Shana Bennett and Gaïane Legendre was selected, then reworked by Youri Kravtchenko, in order to adapt it to the needs of a museum and to the security and conservation standards of the works presented. This set design, imagined as a film set, participates in the immersion of visitors in a hypothetical mining town reminiscent of the one in the story, thanks to the predominance of red brick. The setting, like the novel, creates connections between works that are not necessarily design objects, but which promote the main theme of mudac’s exhibition: the encounter.
*Marco Costantini, Deputy Director
Rafaël Santianez, Scientific collaborator*
*Javier F. Contreras, Head of the Interior Architecture Department
Valentina de Luigi, Scientific Deputy
Youri Kravtchenko, Project Leader
Camille Bagnoud and Manon Portera, Assistants
Shana Bennett and Gaïane Legendre, BA students*