Warsaw unveils Chopin Museum plans
The world's collection of Chopin's belongings will be housed in a new Chopin Museum in Warsaw to open in 2010. This will be the most modern biographical museum in Europe, organisers say. An opening is planned for the 1st of March 2010, exactly on the day of the 200th anniversary of the great composer's birthday. In this way the National Chopin Institute (NIFC) wants to commemorate Chopin Year.
The exhibition is to include 7,000 objects of the world's largest collection of Chopin memorabilia. It will be located on four storeys in an old building. Each visitor will choose their own path to visit the exhibition, because there will be no one suggested route inside. The exhibition items will be divided in thematic halls.
Instead of the traditional ticket or an audio-guide, at the entrance of the museum each visitor will receive a chip which will display images and will emit a commentary in a chosen language when it is placed near an object. Information encoded in the chip and multimedia presentations will be personalised: children will receive one chip, adults - another one, depending on the degree of the knowledge about the life of the composer.
The idea of the project is to impact on the emotions of the visitors and eliminate the barriers between them and the exhibit. Among traditional exhibits one will find touch screens allowing for virtual browsing of Chopin manuscripts.
The sounds that will fill the rooms will not just be Chopin music, but also the sounds of streets of Paris, where the composer lived for much of the time. Visitors will also be able to smell violets – the artist's favorite flowers.
The museum will be housed in the 17th century Ostrogski Palace, complete with a large newly restored subterranean part. The cost is estimated at PLN 81.5 million. Next to the palace a Chopin Centre will be built to house the National Frederic Chopin Institute, a library, record collection, conference rooms and tourist centre. (www.nifc.pl)
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