Louvre diaphanous like soap bubbles, impenetrable like safes: Goppion showcases at the service of islamic treasures

The new exhibition wing was fitted out by Laboratorio Museotecnico Goppion, the Milan-based market-leading company, which adds a new trim to the many others previously earned in the main museums on the planet. For the Departement des Arts de l’Islam, Sandro Goppion and his experts made 105 state-of-the-art technological showcases, specifically designed to keep treasures, much varied in size and type, which, in the most famous museum in the world, document the extraordinarily great art of Islam.

The Galerie, which will be opened on September 22, is the result of a work that is as important as the building of Pei’s great pyramid. This wing is located in the basement of Court Visconti, by the Seine, where a "treasure chest" was dug, which goes as deep as 12 meters, covered by a large, iridescent glass "veil" designed by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti.

The 3,500 square meter exhibition area is structured on three levels. The visit path is seamless, and the pace of the experience only depends on the time spent in front of the objects, meditation and relax, which are desired and helped by the museographic project by architect Renaud Pierard. Interiors are dominated by dark colors: the floor is black and furniture is dark grey stone. Surfaces in porous stone convey the idea of monoliths, which continue in and out of showcases. In this non-space, Goppion showcases, light and clear like soap bubbles, almost disappear and enhance the vision of the colorful items contained in them, and help the perception of architecture.

"Our showcases are a successful combination of strength, tightness and absolute clearness," says Sandro Goppion. "The challenge was to include the most advanced climate control and safety technologies in the thin base. The orthogonally or diagonally "splitting" showcases fully split apart, like the open wings of a flying bird, and allow the curator to literally enter them and lay items out effortlessly. A double sliding motion, in fact, allows for the two shells forming the showcase and the inner part to shift. Once closed, showcases look like safes: without the necessary tools, they are impenetrable even when the lock is picked. The "glass case" showcases, located on the transverse dowel, instead, are equipped with a sophisticated pantograph system, driven by a hydraulic contrivance, which lifts the entire case and lets the operator fully access inside. Visibility of the findings is guaranteed by the large glazing, which, in case of diagonally split showcases, fit together at their tops only, in areas that do not interfere with the enjoyment of the items." An engineering design masterpiece applied to exhibition design.

Goppion confirms once again its very high standard of technological quality and design, which has helped it to reach the summit of its industry, and which has turned it into one of the favorite partners of the major world museums, with whom Goppion has been proudly collaborating for a long time.

A case in point is the Louvre, whose greatest masterpieces, from the Hammurabi code to the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Sainte Anne, are protected by Goppion technologies. And again for the Louvre, Goppion is preparing the Louvre II, after the design of prestigious Sanaa office, which will be opened in the small town of Lens (Calais) in December.