The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institut unveiled its new building in via Gustavo Modena on Monday, a monumental event over 127 years after the institute’s founding. The 2,400 square meter building was purchased at auction in 2015 from the Tuscan regional government and will mainly serve to host the photographic library, which is one of the most important collections of visual documents in the world on the history of Italian art and architecture, spanning from the earliest days of photography through to today. Roughly 630,000 photographs and 160,000 volumes were moved to the new building in what proved to be an enormous logistical challenge, especially due to the fact that the archive of sensitive negatives had to be transported in climate-controlled crates.
All photos by Marco Badiani
Founded in 1897 by a group of German art scholars, the Kunst (as it is colloquially known) has long been one of the most important centers for transcultural research on art and architecture. However, it has faced many troubles in its long history, often caused by the ebb and flow of Italo-Germanic diplomatic relations during the twentieth century. The institute, which at the time was based at Palazzo Guadagni in piazza Santo Spirito, was forced into closure and seized by the city council for the duration of the First World War, following a declaration of war on Germany. In the Second World War, the collection was sealed in 700 crates by the Nazis, who buried the lot 180 meters underground in a salt mine in Kochendorf, Germany. Following the war, the collection was returned to Florence and in 1964 moved to its current headquarters at Palazzo Capponi-Incontri in via Giusti, but the volumes were not spared from the flood of 1966, after which extensive restoration was needed. In the following years, the Kunst acquired Casa Roselli and Casa Zuccari, as well as renting a section of Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai in piazza della Santissima Annunziata. In 2002, the institute became part of the Max Planck Society, Germany’s forefront research organization boasting 31 Nobel Laureates and 84 institutes around Europe.
Now on the new campus, the Photothek plays a central role in the international and transdisciplinary debate on the role of photographic archives in research and in 21st-century societies. In addition to climate rooms for rare photographs, the Photothek also has separate digital and analog photo labs. (The latter is equipped with a darkroom and a wet room for teaching purposes and the restoration of historical photographs.) Meanwhile, the library has moved about 40 per cent of its world-renowned collection, with a focus on Italian artists born after 1870 (including a special collection on Futurism), to via Gustavo Modena. More than 50,000 periodicals have been placed in the basement, which spans almost 1.7 kilometers long: 1.5km for the current collection and 200 meters for future growth. The collection is complemented by the photography reference library centered on the history and theory of photography.
The third floor of the new premises is home to two out of the three independent research groups currently based at KHI. Coded Objects, led by architectural historian Anna-Maria Meister, looks at the way everyday objects are produced and used throughout history in order to reconstruct a sociological narrative, from Murano glass in the sixteenth century to objects from the Mughal Empire. Next door, Hana Gründler investigates the relationship between art and ethics with the research group Ethico-Aesthetics of the Visual, which also campaigns for the inclusion of eastern countries at the Venice Biennale. For her, the new building represents “a common laboratory, in harmony with the other research group, bringing about incredible intellectual synergies”.
The four buildings of the Kunst are clustered in the triangle between piazza San Marco, piazza della Libertà and borgo Pinti, a triangle that also includes the European University Institute’s new Florence School of Transnational Governance, the Botanical Gardens, several faculties comprising the University of Florence and the National Archaeological Museum, making this area a growing hub of education and research in the city. In the words of Gerhard Wolf, managing director of KHI, these edifices make up “a constellation to which the research agenda of the KHI corresponds, whose historical research is aware of today’s problems, from the need for sustainable tourism to the entanglements between monument preservation, art, and the ecological crisis.” His words are echoed by the head of the library, Jan Simane: “A seven-minute walk is good for your health. It cleans your head and stimulates thought. It’s not a big separation, but the creation of a network. We have the possibility of moving physically, or connecting digitally. It’s a complex of connections.”
Since the majority of the items are on open shelves, access to KHI is limited to specialized users. Anyone who holds a PhD may apply for an access card, while those currently pursuing a doctorate can request temporary access.