New Displays for the Bronzes of San Casciano dei Bagni. Reggio Calabria, Berlin and Aquileia

This article examines the successive exhibition displays of the Bronzes of San Casciano dei Bagni in Reggio Calabria, Berlin, and Aquileia, focusing on how exhibition design functions as an interpretative and narrative tool rather than a neutral framework. Across these three contexts, the bronzes are presented through site-specific museographic strategies that emphasize ritual practice, sacred waters, and the processual nature of archaeological research. The exhibitions articulate different relationships between objects, space, and architecture: from the context-oriented narrative at the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria, to the immersive and monumental staging at the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin, and finally to the reflexive use of musealized storage spaces at the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia. Together, these displays demonstrate how contemporary archaeological museography can reconfigure the meaning of an archaeological corpus, transforming the bronzes from isolated masterpieces into a dynamic assemblage whose interpretation evolves through spatial sequencing, light, and curatorial design.