A reorganization and remodeling was carried out in the musealization of the Municipal Museum Dr. José Formosinho, created in 1930 and located in the historic center of the city of Lagos.
The Museum has a vast multidisciplinary collection, with collections as diverse as archaeology, ethnography, sacred art, painting, numismatics, mineralogy, etc. The diversity and complexity of the collections are the arguments that were presented to us as the most challenging for the resolution of the Museum’s museography.
The entire design process was developed in constant discussion with those responsible for the Museum and the guest curator, with the aim of finding the best “speech” possible.
The identity for the José Formosinho Museum of Lagos was based on this diversity of pieces from the exhibition collection and the need for a common identity for the various museological centers of the Museum of Lagos.
A monogram was created with the initials of each museological center. This symbol also works as a frame that shows the different thematic pieces that each nucleus contains, thus allowing for a rich and versatile image.
Two distinct routes were created, separating the historical and archaeological discourse, a chronological line of historical events since the formation of the City of Lagos, of collecting, expressed in such diverse themes, such as painting, handicrafts, African art, “animalia”, “mineralia”, etc.
A large showcase was designed in the middle of a room, which allows visitors to go around it and visualize the great diversity of examples on display, just like in a cabinet of curiosities.
The exhibition ends at the church of Santo António, one of the city’s main monuments, known for its rich gilded carvings.
At the end there is a small store with various merchandising products, with images from the collection and a children’s line, created exclusively for the museum.
