The document discusses the use of recycled materials for museum arrangements and theatrical scenography. It describes how an Italian festival called Ricrea Festival arranged exhibits and events using materials like wooden cases, tin cans, video tapes, and rubber pipes that were recycled from other uses. The arrangement was designed to be portable, low cost, and long-lasting by painting all structures white and designing them to be disassembled. Examples show how chairs, boards, and fabrics were reused for new purposes in displays and a production of The Tempest. Reusing materials kept costs very low while promoting artisans' skills and reducing waste.

1. RE-CREATE | RE-USE | RE-ARRANGE
U S E O F M AT E R I A L S A P P L I E D T O S E T U P A N D
S C E N O G R A P H Y

2. installation: a work formed by a compound of various elements or
objects arranged in a space.
The installation can be rearranged or reassembled in different
expository spaces, undergoing possible adjustments, as long as the
relations between the various elements and the general meaning of
the work do not result altered.
.Museum arrangement: the basic objective of an arrangement is
to minimize the presence of the structures in order to value the
works and to draw visitors’ attention on the content rather than the
container. Such mode of operation is performed through:
1. A reduction to the bare minimum of the volume and
obstruction of the structures carrying the works;
2. Direct and concentrated illumination on the works in order
to highlight their features and to make the structures “disappear”;
3. Systematic and clearly readable captions;
4. Defined and univocal visit route, even if composed by
sections and alternative routes.

3. Exposition: Public exhibition, sometimes temporary or
permanent, of handmade objects or works of arts of a specific field.
Installation
Museum arrangement Exposition

4. The experience of Ricrea Festival
Ricrea Festival is an itinerant festival, which crossed the main provinces of
Puglia and Lazio, proposing didactic and expositive spaces, moments of
meeting and entertainment on the theme of reuse. In Apulia, it was held in
the Urban Laboratories resulted from the project “Bollenti Spiriti”. The
Festival is a project funded by the Prime Minister's Office – Dept. of Youth
and National Civil Service, for the contest “Giovani protagonisti - Protagonisti
per natura”.
During the Festival :
Exhibitions
Meetings
Contests
Theatre
performances
Fatti d’Arte curated the selection
of the works and the realisation of
the museum arrangement that
carried them

5. Planning
We started considering the necessity to use recycled materials in order to
assemble and realise the arrangement
We listed all the suitable materials in relation with the contest’s sections
that were:
Fine art
Video and Images
Design
Fashion
List of suitable materials
Wooden cases
Tin cans
Videotapes
Net used in construction sites
Irrigation rubber pipes
Old plexiglass panels
Old picture frames
Pallets
Old cars’ tyres

6. Forms to be used
Then, we decided the forms and colours to use for the arrangement
Each element had to built taking into account these forms
The square The rectangle The circle
During the realisation of the single elements, these forms evolved. For example
the circle turned into a spiral.

7. The
colour
There were no doubts about the use of the white, being colour that emphasises the works
The white represents the absence of any chromatism. Every other colour can change
tone in the course of time, while the white pigment, if spread pure, maintains its tone
unaltered for long and can strengthen tones and contrasts of other colours matched to
it.
- All the structure were painted with a white acrylic

8. Il layout
The structure disposition was planned to grant the visitors a better usability of the
spaces and to be easy fitting to all the places where it was held.
The arrangement did not have a precise order. The route had no start and no
end. The purpose was to leave the choice to the visitors who, following the
emotions suggested by each section, could decide to be guided by them for the
whole visit.
.

9. A possible disposition of the
arrangement and its usability
Even the cables for the electrical functioning of some
works and devices of the video section, were white.

10. The chosen materials
Old picture
frames
Old plexiglass
panels
Tin cans
Wooden
cases
The outcome
Frames and
tin cans

11. Wooden cases
and frosted plexiglass panels

12. Advantages of this museum arrangement
Possibility to extend the expositive space using the same treated materials
The choice of the colour assures a longer life span of the structure. In
fact, they can always be adjusted, even after years.
The possibility to disassemble the structures allow an easy transport
and the opportunity, if needed, to compact the arrangement so to
reduce it.

13. Other expositive solutions
The old chairs that are no more useful because of the weakening of their structure,
find a new use as a support of works of art, in particular tin cans and bottles of olive
oil. Here, the chairs become a support for the artist creativity. The exhibition Olio
d’artista gathered and immortalise the artist vision encouraging the use of
alternative supports.

14. Boards from
construction sites
Bitonto’s Cathedral yard

15. The suspension of the chairs creates an unusual looking of the support,
which loses its original function to adopt another one. The alternative image
of the chair raises in the visitor a sense of lightness and offers a complete
view so to fully appreciate the works at a close distance.
The colour values and highlights the works

16. Application of re-use to theatre scenography
Even theatre scenes can be built using reused materials. In fact, for the
theatre project ‘The Tempest’, we projected, with the students of the
middle school ‘Carmine Sylos’, a whole ‘recycled’ scenography.
We realised wooden and walkable trunks, applying wooden branches
collected on our beaches. In addition, we created a big sail sewing by hand
different fabrics; we then dyed it so to obtain an irregular colour for the
whole sail.

20. Scaffolding is useful if the purpose of the director is to give the scene dynamicity
and a gigantic shape, as with the show “La Venexiana” directed by Raffaele
Romita.

22. Even theatre objects and costumes can be realised with recycled materials.
Hundreds of plastic plates, recovered from school canteens and carefully washed,
became thousands of feathers that covered wings 180 cm long and 90 cm large.

24. The word ‘GLAM’, realised entirely with recycled materials, was the inspiration for
the scene of the show ‘Tutto sui tacchi di tutti’, produced by Fatti d’Arte.

25. Example of the costs for the arrangement of the exhibition
Olio d’artista
Boards: recovered from construction sites
Cost: 0 €.
Wooden chairs: recovered from old workshops and from garbage bins
Cost: 0 €
Water paint, mixed with sawdust and chalk - 10 litres.
Cost : 25,00 €
Transport costs: 15,00 €
Total cost (included skilled labour): 40,00 €

26. Advantages of the use of recycled materials:
Reduction of materials costs;
Reduction of waste storage costs;
Reduction of the materials processing costs;
Opportunity of work for artisans and promotion of their skills
Re-use is intended as an alternative to
use and dispose

27. Thanks for your attention