Elio Carmi on Museum Branding and the Museo dei Lumi

Designer and branding expert Elio Carmi (born 1952 in Casale Monferrato) discusses museum identity, digital communication, and his Museo dei Lumi in an interview with Alberto Milazzo for Artribune. Carmi, who teaches at university and runs the branding firm Carmi e Ubertis, curated the 2013 exhibition 'Forme di Luce' at the Museo della Ceramica di Mondovì (MOMUC), featuring 25 Chanukkiot from his collection of 250 ritual nine-branched candelabras. The collection includes works by Mimmo Paladino, Ugo Nespolo, and Emanuele Luzzati. Carmi's museum originated from the absence of Casale Monferrato's 19th-century bronze candelabrum, sold after the Shoah to the Italian Jewish temple in Jerusalem and now at the Nahon Museum in Israel. The Chanukkiot, displayed in windows, are 'presences of that absence.' Carmi also worked on rebranding the Uffizi Galleries under director Eike Schmidt, creating a global communication identity for the expanded system including Boboli, Pitti, and the Vasari Corridor. He emphasizes 'responsive' design and 'iper-tinenza' (hyper-relevance), a term coined by Derrick de Kerckhove and Erri de Luca. Currently, Carmi is developing a new identity for Herculaneum, using technology to read scrolls from the Villa of the Papyri. He sees museums as institutions acting in the present, not just preserving the past. The interview was part of MOMUC's 'Riflessioni anti-pandemia' series, addressing how museums maintained connections during COVID-19 lockdowns.