3. The “Small White Room� 4.5. Scenes from the press conference
Some questions for Odile Decq
Where does the MACRO design come from? The MACRO design came from the city, not just because it was the client, but because its structure, composition and essence got inside the MACRO to create this design with the front square and the upper square and between them the walkway, the pathway, the route, perfectly reflecting the way the city of Rome is laid out. So that you can wander from one square to the next. For me, that is the essence of Rome, of the city, which went into the museum. Also, the basalt floor is the same used for the roads of Rome. So, the city goes into the museum and the museum is open to the city.
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There is a lot of light in here. What were you thinking in terms of artificial and natural light? Nowadays museums, especially museums of contemporary art need natural light, so we had to make sure that it could easily enter everywhere in the museum. That's why in the exhibition rooms you find these huge windows. But at the same time, we need to protect against too much natural light when an artist wants to work in more artificial conditions, or when night falls. That's why artificial light was also necessary, so that we could light the entire space, in particular the exhibition rooms, allowing exhibitors to focus attention on certain points, depending what they most wanted to do. But things are different here in the foyer: this is a communal area, with works of art. So in some places we have to focus the light, but generally speaking the museum is immersed in natural light, and in particular in an environment in which little by little artificial light substitutes the natural light, but can't be too different.
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