Casa Macchi, Morazzone
FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano
December 16, 2022
Casa Macchi: the exceptional historical testimony of a style of living and a way of life now disappeared.
Casa Macchi is a charming provincial building that stands in the shadow of the church tower of a quiet village a few kilometres from Varese, Morazzone.
There is nothing extraordinary in this place, neither in the garden, nor in the architecture, nor the decorations or furnishings, nor the objects nor in the history of its inhabitants.
Yet the first visit here satisfies because there is an indisputable charm in penetrating a world that was preserved to the smallest detail, frozen in the moment of abandonment -which seems almost stealthy, sudden and inevitable- and that still smells of everyday life, from the coffee pot left on the stove to the pipe left on the coffee table between the armchairs of the living room.
Beyond dense webs and moth dust, what is striking at Casa Macchi is the opportunity to capture and return the authentic life of a home that was neither farmhouse nor palace, nor ordinary nor extraordinary, but typical, traditional, simple, close in form – bourgeois, with some pleasant upper-middle-class charm – and close in time, so much to generate curiosity and empathy in the visitor, who will recognize objects and customs in a domestic landscape that belongs to his own tradition (especially if Lombard) able to tickle the memory and to ignite some antique interest.
Videoinstalation NEO [Narrative Environments Operas]