Monumental Reconstruction in Fashion Shows

Within the frame of innovative exhibition practices intertwined with the contribution of creative industries, the paper focuses on fashion shows, scenography and scenic design. These examples of large ‘ephemeral reconstructions’ are magniloquent scenic tools for the success of the event, and also genuine museum and scientific devices that stage replica models of monuments or fragments of architecture that gain as much relevance as the collection itself. The contemporary project design for fashion events constitutes a paradigm shift concerning the theme of the project on the preexistence and preservation of monuments, understood not as a direct intervention but as a cognitive tool in the form of scenic and interactive displays which may be seen as “in-vitro” reconstructions, in which the reconstruction of a monumental facies takes place thanks to the recomposition of architecture within controlled perimeters, understood both formally (i.e. large event spaces that accommodate the runway) and temporally (i.e. reconstructions that live the time of the unfolding of the event). An in-vitro reconstruction appears as an operation adherent to the reference form in which the reconstructed portion acquires the fullness of meaning by being perfectly adherent and recognisable to itself, with a minimum quantum of interpretive interpolation. The contribution formally studies these episodes of ephemeral reconstructions and how they contribute to developing a new exhibition model of architecture and monuments out of their context.