Museum of Apoxyomenos — Visual Identity

  • Vura Applied Design
Museum of Apoxyomenos is the newly opened museum based on a single exhibit — Apoxyomenos — the most preserved ancient sculpture of its kind in the world. Visual identity of this museum was a winning proposition in the competition that was organised while the museum was still under construction. This visual identity project is based on the fact that we know only so much about this sculpture because the athlete’s representation was left short for many answers. One detail contributes to this fact — Apoxyomenos is missing his eyes. The absence of the eyes means the absence of the emotion in his expression. Holes that are left can be interpreted as potential answers or as new questions. This identity combines historical facts and architecture of the Museum. The statue was originally cast out of seven parts that were joined together. During the storm, Apoxyomenos fell from the ship into the sea and broke again but was rescued centuries later and restored into its original form. It is displayed in its permanent home today, Museum of Apoxyomenos. This Museum tells his story piece by piece through scenes/rooms. That story gets the meaning in the “eye to eye” contact with the statue in the final scene/room. The true meaning of this visual identity is in the encounter of Apoxyomenos and the visitor who in the absence of the sculpture’s eyes creates his own version of the story who this young man was and what happened to its statue. Absent fragments of information thus become parts of one deeper identity which is spread in the world by the visitors.