The [temporary] company museum in Pompeii

The work has been funded by the Regional Government of Campania and represents the most advanced stage of a wider cultural project. In 2002 the department for Productive Activities of the Campania Regional Government asked the Second University of Naples to produce a preliminary project on a ‘regional museum system of design and applied art’ of the Campania region (OFFICIAMUSEUM). The reasons behind this project grew out of lengthy and fascinating research based on the concrete cooperation between designers and firms of products of excellence in Campania. The result is that of managing to cross the threshold into the field of manufacturing in the region, proving that it’s possible to follow the path of design in a land ‘with poor industry’ - Campania and the South of Italy as a whole - but teeming with craftsmen and small businesses, regardless of how influenced they are by tradition and less than inclined to change on their own initiative. OFFICIAMUSEUM will take shape, with the processing and management of the digital catalogue, with the [temporary] company museum in Pompeii and the whole network, as a ‘museum of the firms’ of Campania. It’s a project that aims at supporting the businesses operating in our area, and an opportunity for small craft businesses which, however, will be required to invest in design and young professionals, expand their current production to include new objects, innovate the production cycle and distribution system. It may sound like an ambitious idea which, however, constitutes a modern response to the crisis of the global economy, even though it is mainly based on the traditional productions of Campania. Degrowth and Post-growth, different trends that are making their way in the world, tell us that producing without limits, ignoring the actual demand, is pure madness. The productions made following the logics of handicrafts can well adapt to these new needs.