What happens behind the scenes of an exhibition? Here's the Science Museum's documentary

The National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan celebrates today, Dec. 10, 2020, the first birthday of the Leonardo Galleries, the world’s largest permanent exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, which opened last year on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death: 1,300 square meters of exhibition space with 170 objects including historical models, works of art, ancient volumes and installations. To accompany the blowing out of the first candle, the museum is releasing the premiere of the pilot installment of the documentary Mechanics of an Exhibition, which recounts the birth of the exhibition and the behind-the-scenes realization of the project: the film is directed by Francesco Clerici, a documentary filmmaker specializing in art and heritage issues, who made his debut in 2015 with the film The Hand Gesture, which won a critics’ award at the Berlinale.

Since the summer of 2018, when the historic Leonardo Gallery closed its doors and was dismantled to make way for the new project, Clerici has been documenting the “behind the scenes of the Museum,” packaging a project that is also the creation of a historical record of the Museum’s action toward Leonardo’s legacy, through the depiction of the daily work of its professionals, in the various sectors involved. The films retrace some of the highlights of the work, taking viewers behind the scenes of this important transition. Conservators, conservators, restorers, curators, designers, fitters, transporters, educators, organizational, communication and digital media experts work behind the scenes on a daily basis, and within the documentary Mechanics of an Exhibition, you can see them in action. Director Francesco Clerici’s simple and direct style thus allows the viewer to immerse himself in the sounds and gestures of the work done to bring to the public the figure of Leonardo the artist, engineer and scientist: an expertise built up over more than sixty years of activity, as evidenced by the rare archival images that appear in some episodes.

Episode 0 of the documentary will be online on Thursday, Dec. 10, and then, from Dec. 21 until March 1, an episode will be published every Monday within the Digital Stories @Museoscienza schedule, online on the museum’s website and on the social channels Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube, under the heading #MechanicsOfAnExhibition. Below are all the events in the series.

Thursday, December 10 - Leonardo Galleries Birthday
Episode 0 - Overture
This collection of short documentaries, commissioned by the Museum from filmmaker Francesco Clerici, was filmed during the eighteen months it took to renovate the Museum’s most celebrated exhibit: the Leonardo da Vinci Galleries, which opened one year ago, on December 10, 2019. In a symphony of gestures and tools, the era of the historic Leonardo Gallery comes to a close, minimal and solemn. The colorful and immersive spaces of the new Galleries take shape. Episode 0, screened at the inaugural event, is a true “overture,” summarizing in a few minutes the months of intense work that will be explored in detail in subsequent episodes.

Monday, December 21 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 1 - In the City of Leonardo. Preparations
The design of the new exhibition is almost complete, work is about to begin. After the last guided tour in the old Gallery, the year of the Vinci celebrations opens. We witness some moments of work in the museum offices: a meeting among the curators, the director general’s preparations for a press conference. The deep connection between Milan and Leonardo and the special significance of the anniversary for the city emerge.

Monday, Dec. 28 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 2 - The Descent of Flight. Movement of the glider model.
The Gallery is closed, but the reconstruction of the glider envisioned by Leonardo still hangs from the central cruise. How to retrieve it? Skilled workers, with assistance from Museum staff, climb to a height of 6 meters (20 feet) and gently lower the precious model, to store it safely.

Monday, Jan. 4 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 3 - Ancient and New Perspectives. Educational activities and virtual reality
Nearly a year has passed since construction began. Temporarily lacking its most important exhibit, the Museum is celebrating Leonardo’s birthday with a special weekend dedicated to drawing. As early as the 1950s, the Museum offered laboratory activities, but today the tools and approach have changed greatly.

Monday, Jan. 11 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 4 - The Machine Transfer. Transfer of the loom model.
The Leonardo Parade exhibition, which opened the Vinci celebrations in Milan, has just ended. The life-size loom model built by the Museum in 2005 must be moved to its new permanent location-a delicate and complex operation. How to solve the unexpected?

Monday, Jan. 18 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 5 - The Icon’s Journey. Moving the Fiammenghino’s Last Supper fresco.
The large torn fresco depicting the Last Supper created by Fiammenghino in 1626 testifies to how deep Leonardo’s influence was in Lombard painting. Placed in the old exhibit at the beginning of the itinerary, the work, mounted on a resin support, is being moved to find its place in a new Hall and be restored.

Monday, Jan. 25 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 6 - The test of skill. Assembling the model of the Pantheon in Rome.
Architect Georges Chedanne was the designer of the Galleries Lafayette in Paris and even as a student revealed his attention to detail. He made the model of the Pantheon in Rome as a final proof at the French Academy in 1892-93. It consists of more than 70 pieces that fit together interlockingly, on a base formed from a single block. In each movement, restorers are left with the arduous task of patiently reassembling the work.

Monday, Feb. 1 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 7 - Suspension from the Waters. Setting up the Naviglio basin hatches.
In the new Galleries, the precious wooden hatches of the Conca di San Marco del Naviglio Martesana seem to float suspended over the water, projected onto the floor of the room that houses them. To achieve this sense of lightness took many hours, a lot of patience and a lot of muscle.

Monday, Feb. 8 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 8 - The Solution Study. Setting up the flight of birds
Can Leonardo be compared to a contemporary designer? The question is clearly anachronistic, but in the 1960s the great designer Bruno Munari, visiting the Museum, tried to give his own answer. Certainly, the Museum’s designers had to use all their creativity and precision to display a flight of swifts and jays in Room 2 “Designing to understand the world.”

Monday, Feb. 15 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 9 - The Care of Words. Display of ancient books
During Leonardo’s lifetime, a great technological innovation began to spread in Europe: movable type printing. However, books remained rare and precious objects. Some of them are on display in the Galleries. They come from the Museum’s library, which holds several ancient texts. They are special objects that need certain light and temperature conditions. The Museum’s librarian and designers know how to take care of them.

Monday, Feb. 22 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 10 - The Rise of Geometry. Assembly of the elevated vacuo icosahedron.
This model repurposes one of the Platonic solids drawn by Leonardo around 1496 for his mathematician friend Luca Pacioli’s treatise De Divina Proportione. We have chosen it as the symbol and introduction of the Leonardo Galleries because it well restores the unity of knowledge that was common to all Humanists in the Renaissance: it speaks to us of mathematics, perspective, art, drawing and philosophy, in that interpenetration of knowledge that we recount in the exhibition itinerary.

Monday, March 1 - #MechanicsOfAnExhibition.
Episode 11 - Before the premiere. Behind the scenes of the opening.
With just a few days to go before the opening of the new Galleries, staff in the Museum’s offices are preparing for opening day, including organization, touch-ups to the exhibition, and daily staff life. It is also a historic moment for the Museum’s website, one of the longest-running among Italian museum sites (it has been online since 1999), which is about to be totally revamped.

What happens behind the scenes of an exhibition? Here's the Science Museum's documentary

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