Van Cleef & Arpels
Palazzo Reale, Milano

Design, architecture, history, craftsmanship, heritage, modernity, contemporaneity, timelessness, timeliness, harmony and juxtaposition. The exhibition Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love is designed to saturate the experience of looking at beautiful things with a strong sense of place and time and also separation.  

There are three powerful forces that come into play in the exhibition. Firstly, Van Cleef & Arpels masterpieces. Secondly, the curatorial narrative by Alba Cappellieri that organizes the collection, and finally, the highly suggestive and very not neutral, anti-white-cube rooms of the of the Appartamenti dei Principi di Palazzo Reale. 

The scenography is a medium that has to harness this dialogue between forces into a definitive contemporary experience, adding yet another layer of information, with its own specific aesthetic point of view.  This layering gives the exhibition a very contemporary feeling of timelessness, where you can’t quite pin down which century we are dallying in: the 18th,19th, 20th or 21st.   In a sense, we are time-travelling. 

The exhibition is laid out in a rigorous pattern, with architectural configurations and simple forms in order to add minimal narrative. The selected collection of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry and objects are displayed in a landscape of "mediators"- Towers, tables and showcases that, through the use of materials that respond to reflection, luminosity and the light of the jewels themselves, offer a different, immersive exhibition experience.  Colored ambient light is sometimes used to caress the careful finishes of the Appartamenti: pink light on red silk walls, aquamarine light on gold leaf for example, and colored mirror surfaces that reflect the rooms but not quite as they are, just slightly different, a tint of another way of seeing. 

The exhibition is designed to weave the history and elegance of both Van Cleef & Arpels and Palazzo Reale- into a magical immersive experience. Magic often comes from synergy. The light and reflection work to unify the “ether” around, so that the brightly lit jewels are always the most luminous things/citizens in/of the rooms. This helps focus the visitor on the actual pieces being shown, as the crispness and articulation of their presence is stronger when contrasted with the nebulousness of the ether around.  The Jewels, rich in their own interior light. demand the attention they deserve.

Johanna Grawunder

11/2019