Art and Architecture with Ariella - Torino
Ciao Bloggisti,
This week is the first post from our new intern Ariella, who is studying abroad in Rome for the semester. She's a student at Cornell University, with a double major in Fine Arts and Human Development. Every other Wednesday we hope to have a post from Ariella. We're excited to hear her thoughts as she explores Rome and other parts of Italy.
Take it away Ariella!
A couple weeks ago, I went with my classmates to Torino and had an amazing time! After a long bus ride, our first stop was Torino's National Museum of Cinema.
The museum was exciting and the architecture was remarkable. It's located inside of Mole Antonelliana which is the monumental symbol of the City of Torino. Not only was it aesthetically pleasing, but it also stimulated many other senses with its acoustics and other interactive displays. The whole museum had weird loops around the building, ultimately confusing us.
Francois Confino was one of the main designers of the displays and the interior of the building. The museum has a very interesting background. Originally it was commissioned as a new synagogue after religious freedom was established. The architecture was started by Alessandro Antonelli and was later completed by his son Costanzo. The museum is set up in an idiosyncratic fashion. Each floor seemed to have a cut out in the middle, leaving a large section of the building empty. This created an extremely tall ceiling from the bottom floor. Right in the center of the museum there was an elevator made of glass which took us up to the tallest building in Torino, offering an incredible panorama of the city.
The floor of the elevator was made of glass and had striking views of the entire building. However, the ride up was not the best experience for those of us with a fear of heights.Looking back, I feel I did not spend enough time in the museum as it's something that could possibly take an entire day. The next day we walked around the city admiring the architecture, walking in and out of churches and buildings. At one point we realized there was a kind of 'exhibition' in the city. Contemporary artists had pieces displayed throughout the city and there was a map of all of the pieces. We grabbed a map and started the trail. This trail took us to some beautiful piazzas and courtyards. One of the pieces was a large cube with a triangular pyramid on top which matched the design of the window almost exactly except it was enlarged. The cafes in Torino were also incredibly beautiful. It was obvious that they were built and designed long ago. The way the aesthetics have been maintained make them unique to Torino, similar to much of the architecture we saw.
Photos by Ariella.