Turin's Museum of Cinema opens a permanent space dedicated to video games

The National Cinema Museum in Turin will open Video Game Zone, a permanent space dedicated to video games in a chapelle of theTemple Hall, on July 2. It will be one of the first permanent areas in Italy and the world entirely dedicated to video games within a museum institution and will be curated by Domenico De Gaetano, director of the National Cinema Museum, and Fabio Viola and in collaboration with theUniversity of Turin.

The exhibit allows the public to immerse themselves in the world of video games thanks to a central projection that presents a montage of films and TV series that have cited, paid homage to, or been inspired by video games and gaming culture. Four audiovisual stations show video game intros and trailers, developer diaries recounting the making process, and stock footage related to the making of and gameplay, offering a glimpse into the evolution of video game aesthetics and production techniques: from rotoscope to the introduction of motion capture and live action. Finally, the layout is complemented by display cases containing concept art, notes, sketches and design documents, as well as preproduction assets and props from the various video game narrative universes.

In addition to the creation of a dedicated area, the National Cinema Museum has launched an acquisition campaign focused on the world of gaming, which is not limited to the playable version of video games but includes rare and unpublished production and game design materials. These include concept art, technical manuals, notes, storyboards, preparatory drawings, scripts, and objects used internally in the creative stages before release. These materials are often lost or deleted, but they underscore how the process of making a video game is, in many cases, similar to that of a film.

On July 2, to mark the opening of the Video Game Zone, the National Cinema Museum will host a special masterclass with David Cage, founder of QUANTIC DREA software. During this event, he will explore how the worlds of video games and film influence each other and how this connection can give rise to new storytelling scenarios. Admission to the masterclass will be free, but reservations will be required, which can be made on the museum’s website starting Friday, June 14.

“After the rooms dedicated to VR, the National Cinema Museum is opening up to new languages that can dialogue in a transversal way and address an increasingly wide audience,” stressed Enzo Ghigo, president of the National Cinema Museum of Turin. “We are going through a moment of great and rapid transformations, it is also up to us, as a museum, to know how to intercept them in time and make them available to our many visitors.”

“Cinema and video games have totally different characteristics, structures, personalities and methods of enjoyment, but the intersections and mutual influences are countless and increasingly evident,” said Domenico De Gaetano, director of the National Cinema Museum. “We have created a unique space, perfectly inserted in the museum itinerary, which tells the story of the increasingly strong link between video games and cinema. Thus begins a path of acquisition of works, study and research, all aimed at the creation of an exhibition that will see the light of day in the coming years.”

“If cinema with its moving image has shaped the collective imagination through visual storytelling, video games have extended this imagination, offering not only stories to watch, but also to experience and influence directly thanks to their interactive image nature,” commented Fabio Viola. “The introduction of video games to the National Cinema Museum is not only a formal step in recognizing them as an art form in their own right but is intended to emphasize and stimulate dialogue between different but absolutely complementary art forms, showing the intersections, mutual influences and unique expressive potential of these two mediums that have marked the 20th and 21st centuries.”

Pictured is the Temple Hall. Photo: National Museum of Cinema, Turin

Turin's Museum of Cinema opens a permanent space dedicated to video games

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