从这里看，景色似乎令人费解。亚历山德罗•戈皮恩(Alessandro Goppion)将带我参观以他名字命名的公司的新办公室。位于现有工厂前面的空间。他告诉我:“我要把后面的海湾延伸到院子里。”“我们有这么多工作，已经没有足够的生产空间了。他给我看了平板玻璃隔断、嵌在墙上的家具、地板的饰面。就像我刚才说的，一楼那片巨大的玻璃面朝着一个很难说是令人愉快的场景。一个难以理解的观点。正如他们在这些案例中所说的，Goppion S.p.A.是一个卓越的中心。带着我们意大利人特有的那种难以掩饰的、多少有点孩子气的骄傲，我在世界上任何一个博物馆都能看到来自我国的艺术品、考古发现和材料文献。没有意大利作品的博物馆似乎是不可能存在的。我没有意识到的是，在芝加哥、巴黎、东京，无论我身在何处，无论我在哪个博物馆欣赏一件作品被展示和保存的方式，在大多数情况下，即使不是全部，展示系统都是由Goppion制作的。没有任何世界艺术的标志没有被展出和保护过:米洛的维纳斯、蒙娜丽莎、维特鲁威人、天堂之门。佛罗伦萨大教堂歌剧院的天堂之门。(阿基维奥·福托格拉夫科·戈平)维多利亚&阿尔伯特博物馆:世界上最大的展示柜是在南纳维里奥的特雷扎诺规划、设计、原型制作并投入生产的。然后，似乎这还不够，正是在这里，在米兰的郊区，每一个展示柜的拆卸，运输和安装系统被开发出来。每一件艺术品都是安全的，每一件展品都是展出的，每一件保存下来的艺术品都是经过仔细研究的，并且都有一个独特的、定制的解决方案。阿达比尔地毯在维多利亚&阿尔伯特博物馆,伦敦。这些都是技术创新、复杂的机械部件，能够控制相对湿度、温度和空气质量。这些设备可以减弱游客产生的震动，或者保护他们的物品不受火灾或地震的影响。他们自己也几乎值得钦佩，如果不是因为他们一直在努力做的事情就是消失的话。他们的目标是服务于展览的需要，而不是遮蔽它。1952年3月，亚历山德罗的父亲尼诺•戈平(Nino Goppion)创立了以他名字命名的公司。它是用来制作显示系统的。尼诺是从威尼托来到米兰的，他发现了一个熙熙攘攘、热闹非凡、富有创新精神的城市，这个城市不仅想要生产东西，而且想要炫耀，想要展示自己的产品。尼诺构想了一套展示系统，立即得到了费列罗的青睐。费列罗订购了数万套展示系统，用于在意大利各地的商店展示其糖果。从那时起，尼诺开始为药店、珠宝店等生产成套设备。简而言之，Goppion正在转型为一家展览设计公司，或许甚至没有意识到这一点。同样不知情的是，它还为米兰的市民古代乐器博物馆(Civic Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments)举办了展览。那是1956年，博物馆的陈列柜第一次被特别设计和制作。但正是亚历山德罗在上世纪70年代加入该公司时，抓住了为博物馆制作展示系统的巨大潜力。这需要的是将精致的设计与历史、艺术、博物馆专业知识和先进技术相结合。这是一个相当大的挑战。一个被满足了。今天，死海古卷、日内瓦公约和莱斯特法典都受到了Goppion展览的保护。日内瓦红十字会博物馆举行的日内瓦大会。亚历山德罗告诉我，他最近要完成的一项事业:意大利最大的一片玻璃，用来保存拉斐尔的漫画。他们还必须想办法让它进入博物馆的历史建筑，因为没有足够大的开口让它通过。我对他说，意大利当然不缺工作。他笑了。“说实话，我们95%的工作是在国外完成的。我们在世界上最多有两个竞争对手开发了这种先进的技术。他还跟我谈起奥斯陆国家博物馆(National Museum in Oslo)获得的委托，该委托是经过一项名为“竞争对话”(competitive dialogue)的程序获得的
From here the view might appear incomprehensible. Alessandro Goppion is taking me on a tour of the new offices of the company that bears his name. Housed in a space that has been added to the front of the existing factory. “I’m going to extend the bays that give onto the courtyard at the rear,” he tells me. “We have so much work that there’s no longer enough space for production.” He shows me the plate-glass partitions, the furniture built into the walls, the finishes of the floors. And, as I was saying, the enormous expanse of glass on the first floor that faces onto a scene that can hardly be said to be pleasant. An incomprehensible view.Goppion S.p.A. is, as they say in these cases, a centre of excellence. Carrying with me that ill-concealed and somewhat childish pride typical of us Italians, there is no museum anywhere in the world where I have not come across a work of art, an archaeological find, a material document from our country. It does not seem possible for a museum to exist without an Italian work in it. What I had not realized is that in Chicago, in Paris, in Tokyo, wherever I have been, in whatever museum I’ve admired the way in which a work has been presented and conserved, in the majority of cases, if not all, the display system was made by Goppion. There is no icon of world art that has not been put on show and protected by Goppion: the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, the Vitruvian Man, the Gates of Paradise.The Gate of Paradise of the Baptistery of Florence in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. (Archivio Fotografico Goppion)The incredible Ardabil showcase at the Victoria & Albert Museum: sixty square metres that can be raised above the ground, the biggest display case in the world was planned, designed, prototyped and put into production here, at Trezzano sul Naviglio. And then, as if that were not enough, it is here on the outskirts of Milan that the system of disassembly, transport and installation of each display case is developed. Each work of art secured, each exhibit put on show, each artefact conserved receives careful study and a unique, customized solution.Ardabil carpet at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. (Archivio Fotografico Goppion)These are showcases that are technologically innovative, complex pieces of machinery capable of controlling relative humidity, temperature and the quality of the air. These dampen the vibrations produced by visitors or protect their contents from fire or earthquake. There are also almost worthy of admiration in themselves, if it were not for the fact that all they are trying to do, continually, is disappear. They aim to serve the needs of the exhibit, not overshadow it.It was in March 1952 that Nino Goppion, Alessandro’s father, founded the company that bears his name. It was set up to make display systems. Nino, who had come to Milan from the Veneto, had found a bustling, hectic, innovative city that did not want just to produce things, but to show them off, to put its products on display. Nino conceived a system of showcases that immediately found favour with Ferrero, which ordered tens of thousands of them for the presentation of its confectionery in shops around Italy. From there Nino moved on to the production of complete installations for pharmacies, jewellers, etc. In short, Goppion was turning into a company of exhibit design, perhaps without even realizing it. In the same unwitting fashion it made the showcases for the Civic Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments in Milan. This was in 1956, and for the first time the display cases of a museum had been designed and produced ad hoc. But it was Alessandro, when he joined the company in the 1970s, who grasped the enormous potential of a production aimed at display systems for museums. What this would take was a combination of refined design with historical, artistic and museological expertise and advanced technology. It was quite a challenge. And one that was met. Today the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Geneva Convention and the Leicester Codex are all protected by Goppion showcases.The Geneva Convention at the Red Cross Museum in Geneva. (Archivio Fotografico Goppion)Alessandro tells me about the undertaking that he is bringing to a close in these days: the largest sheet of glass in Italy, used to conserve Raphael’s cartoons in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. They have also had to find a way of getting it into the historic premises of the museum, as there was no opening big enough for it to pass through. Certainly there’s no lack of work in Italy, I say to him. He smiles. “To tell the truth 95 per cent of our work is done abroad. At the most we have two competitors in the world that have developed such advanced technology.” And he talks to me about the commission for the National Museum in Oslo, won after a procedure, called “competitive dialogue,” that lasted a year, in which the three global rivals presented their most advanced solutions so that the authorities could decide which to choose. The winner, obviously, will be Goppion.“Here we do the impossible,” he tells me. Indeed, I’ve seen them at work: they use mechanical devices designed on the computer, then laser cut and assembled by hand without a single weld. “We are the Comacine masters of mechanics,” he adds with a smile. And finally I understand the sense of this apparently incomprehensible view: what you can admire from here is the scenery of work. A place where within the radius of less than a kilometre it is possible to find woodworkers, mechanics, ironmongers and other artisans with an extraordinary wealth of experience. The sheds that are visible from this point are like a triumph of the intelligence of hands, of those who really know how to make things. And so Goppion has earned the trust of the world. “If you want a precise date,” he says, “it was when we made the display cases for the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.” This was in 1992. It was not just a question of putting them on show in the Tower of London. What was needed above all was to ensure that these symbols of the monarchy would be protected against theft, or worse still, terrorist attacks. The country’s domestic security agency, the famous MI5, had Goppion make prototypes of the showcases. It then tried to break into them, take them apart, even bomb them. Nothing worked. “They are still there,” Alessandro tells me, with undisguised pride. “After a quarter of a century of honourable service.”The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom displayed at the Tower of London. (Archivio Fotografico Goppion)CWhat have been lost though are the earliest showcases produced by Nino, the ones made for jewellers or for the musical instruments of the Civic Museum. A piece of the history of design that has vanished. “Not completely,” he says, as if letting me in on a secret. And he tells me about the time he went to Cucchi’s, the historic Milanese pasticceria, and while drinking a coffee his attention was caught by a showcase at the back of the room. “I had recognized it from a distance. It was a product display case made by my father.” It was a sort of family epiphany. A small private miracle. I find the story, I must admit, moving. It is getting late, I have to go. I arrange to meet Alessandro for a coffee. At Cucchi’s.The Civic Museum of Ancient Musical Instruments in Milan. (Archivio Fotografico Goppion)
