Knowing through Color

The MAG - 01.23

TRENDS by Cristina Morozzi

Pantone recently announced its 2023 Color of the Year, Viva Magenta, a shade of red that is inspired by the hues of nature and is defined as bold, powerful and intense. Viva Magenta will accompany us, influencing our mood and color choices.

And speaking of color, there is an ongoing exhibition called Dentro il colore. Attraverso la materia e la luce (Inside Color. Through matter and light) at MUSE, Trent’s Museum of Science, curated by architect De Lucchi and philosopher and president of MUSE Stefano Zecchi, who stated that his position stimulates him “to always seek out new ways to bring a humanistic vision to the scientific discipline”. “Dealing with the theme of color”, he continues, “has always been in our Western culture and philosophy. Think about Wittgenstein’s observations on colors or Goethe’s Theory of Colors. We imagined an immersive path, a journey in which the experience of color builds knowledge and makes people process emotions”.

De Lucchi states that their “experiment revolves around the relationship between matter and light, between reality and the imaginary, and aims to unite the physical world with the mental world”. The exhibition presents a variety of volcano-shaped spaces in different colors, and with special niches on the sides which include over a hundred geological, botanical, mineralogical, and paleontological artifacts from MUSE’s naturalistic collections. These include the Bittern, an extremely rare heron with gold plumage, an ancient specimen of Crocus with indigo petals, and slivers of white metamorphic rocks.

One is instantly struck by a magical sensation upon entering the volcano-shaped structures: the red one is illuminated by a red light, the blue one by a blue light, and the sound you hear is built on the wavelength of each hue. At the center is a screen that shows images referring to the dominant color. The structure of the exhibition addresses the natural origin of colors and investigates their emotional influence, drawing a connection between colors and the psyche.