TrasiMemo – Trasimeno Memory Bank

The TrasiMemo Museum is situated in the magnificent Palazzo Baldeschi. The museum is the result of a project intended to “reactivate” memories, and recognise and safeguard the community’s rich cultural heritage. The fruits of the project are an extensive virtual archive, which can be consulted in the Palazzo itself alongside related museum installations.

The project is part of a wider effort to restore meaning and visibility to artisan skills in the Lake Trasimeno area. It documents the practices, cultural processes and social contexts of craftsmen and women through the ages, drawing attention to the social functions they serve.

The museum has been designed to let the craft skills speak for themselves through the use of cutting-edge exhibition methods: spoken word accounts detail the people, their histories and ways of life, accompanied by images, short films and physical exhibits.

Local people are given the opportunity to talk about their lives and work, as craftsmen and women, chefs, artists, collectors, inventors and so on. It also offers the opportunity to plan projects, and hand down their skills to future generations. TrasiMemo is more than just a memory bank, it also offers public workshop, educational and play areas, and a meeting area where residents and visitors can get to know each other and exchange ideas.

The Exhibition

The exhibition chronicles local crafts activities without documents or files: the archive is made up of histories and practices divided into four different sections: metal, wood, ceramics, and textiles.

There are four desks, one for each section, each matched with its own large informative panel. The four panels help the visitor navigate the archive. Visitors are invited to explore the archive to peruse the memory extracts contained on the tablets, in the drawers of the stands, in the large combined chest of drawers archive, in the texts printed on the wall, and so on.

The combination of virtual exhibits with physical objects gives visitors the information they need to recognise signs of the lasting effects that local crafts and skills have had on the surrounding territory during their travels, and to better appreciate their complexity and fragility.