The exhibition
Josef and Anni Albers. Voyage inside a blind experience. Santa Maria della Scala, Siena
From April 6 to July 4, at Santa Maria della Scala (Siena) takes place the first of the three exhibitions of the project "Josef and Anni Albers." Voyage inside a blind experience ". The artistic path has been structured to allow a totalizing fruition, able to involve both people with visual disabilities and sighted ones. Here's what visitors will find.
The dark corridor
At the entrance of the exhibition there is a dark corridor in which the public can explore tactfully the materials used by Josef and Anni Albers, beeing stimulated to recognize their characteristics and peculiarities through touch. Visitors can use an audio guide that automatically starts near the points of interest.
Touching the original artworks
Thanks to the generosity of the Albers Foundation it is possible to touch for the first time five original works by Josef and Anni Albers: Rail, a fabric that Anni produced for commercial use in the 50s; Montanius III, an embossing print in which Anni tries to manipulate the forms; Intaglio DUO E, another inkless print made only by exposing raised lines; Homage to the Square and Color study for Homage to the Square, two unfinished works by Josef in which it can be perceived the different thicknesses of the dough, the spatula spread and the plaster corrections.
Music section
An entire section of the exhibition is dedicated to the listening and to the music, which will link the covers designed by Josef Albers for Command Records, with the the relative vinyls’ music . Another suggestion will be given by the association between the musical figure of the basso ostinato and the modularity chosen by Josef Albers, also in relation to the basso ostinato, for the realization of some works inspired by Mexican architectures.
Tactile models
In the exhibition itinerary it is possible to touch twelve resin reproductions of the exhibited artworks, created by the Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano to which are added the reproductions of Matières and Paper folding reproduced by Fritz Horstman, exercises that Albers’ students did to stimulate the manual technique and the creativity.
The Josef Albers table
It is recreated an experimentation that Josef Albers described in his text "Interaction of Color". To set it up in the exhibition, there are three basins of water at different temperatures on one a table, this allows us to experience how the tactile perception of temperature can be relative, as well as the visual perception of colors.
Catalog and website
Catalog and website have been created according to the project: the exhibition catalog is completely in Braille with some tactile reproductions, while the website created and certified by the Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano, is completely accessible to the blind. All the captions of the exhibition are also in Braille.
Audio-guides
Audioguides were planned for the visit, designed together with Tooteko, a spin-off of the IUAV of Venice, which produced a device that allows to explore with the hands three-dimensional surfaces and to receive relevant and localized audio information. The system consists of three basic elements: a hi-tech bracelet, a tactile support with NFC tags and an application for tablets or smartphones. The hi-tech bracelet reads NFC tags and, thanks to the Tooteko App, communicates wirelessly with the smartphone or tablet. During the tactile navigation of the supports, when the hand reaches a recognizable hotspot thanks to the Braille coding, the bracelet identifies the NFC tag contained in it and activates the audio track relative to the point touched. In this way, each hotspot corresponds to an audio information pertinent to the touched detail.