Milan — MUDEC (MUseo DElle Culture)

3 min readDec 7, 2018

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MUDEC Museo delle Culture — Via Tortona 56, Milano

In line with constant efforts on the part of the municipal authorities to preserve the memory of the economic and social processes that have shaped the city’s identity, the Milan City Council took steps in 1990 to buy the old Ansaldo industrial plant at Porta Genova and use it for cultural services. The disused factories, authentic monuments of industrial archaeology, have been converted into studios, workshops and new creative spaces. In continuity with its original vocation but also in response to the need for recognition and revaluation manifested by the foreign communities that have found opportunities to develop and put down roots in the city, the Milan Council decided to create the Mudec Museum of Cultures in the old Ansaldo area to house and display the municipal collections of ethnographic material.

Born out of a salvage operation of industrial archaeology on the site of the old Ansaldo factory in the Tortona area, Mudec is a meeting place for cultures and communities. The complex comprises different spaces to offer visitors and the city a whole range of cultural events and facilities spread out over an area of 17,000 square metres. The display area is laid out around a large, covered central plaza on the first floor, which hosts the section of the museum with the works of the permanent collection and the rooms used for major exhibitions as well as the auditorium, a theatre with three hundred seats devoted to performances and the visual arts.

The ground-floor reception area includes a bistro, design store, ticket office, cloakroom, the Forum of Cultures, a conference hall/multifunctional space, educational facility, restoration workshop and repositories open to small groups for guided visits. Mudec Junior is a space specially designed for kids, where children too can come into contact with the world’s different cultures through games, multimedia equipment and manual workshops.

A visual project — the art of Bansky from Nov 11, 2018 to Apr 14, 2019.

Banksy, a British artist and writer whose identity is still unknown, is considered one of the leading exponents of contemporary street art. His works are often laced with satire and deal with universal subjects such as politics, culture, and ethics. The shroud of mystery that, by choice and out of necessity, is perpetuated when we talk about Bansky has turned him into an absolute legend of our day and age. His visual protest engages with a vast and heterogeneous public and has made him one of the best loved artists among the younger generations.

There is much speculation about his name and his identity. He was born and grew up in Bristol, but apart from this little or nothing is known about him: it is impossible to find out the details of his life although many have attempted to do so. As Shepard Fairey explained, “His works are full of metaphors that transcend language barriers. The images are entertaining and witty, and yet so simple and accessible: even six-year old children who have no concept of cultural conflict, have no problem seeing that there is something not quite right when they see the Mona Lisa with a rocket launcher.” In Banksy’s work the words often go beyond an aesthetic evaluation (which in any case goes against the grain of the artist’s sensibilities) or a declaration of intent, but highlight his firm stance against the contemporary art system.

“A Visual Protest. The Art of Banksy”, at MUDEC from 21 November 2018, is curated by Gianni Mercurio, showcasing about 80 works including paintings, sculptures and prints by the British artist, accompanied by objects, photographs, and videos, about 60 album and CD covers, which the artist himself curated, and about forty pieces of memorabilia (lithographs, stickers, prints, magazines, fanzines, tickets, promotional flyers), that retrospectively describe the work and thinking of Banksy. […] Mercurio states “Banksy amplifies and expands the multicultural character of the “writers” who initially formally inspired him: like the street artists of his generation, he accentuates the content of the socio-political messages in an explicit way, indeed he radically shifts the message from the form to the content”. His message, his art, manifests itself as an explicit and scathing criticism directed at the arrogance of the establishment, of power, conformism, war, and consumerism.

Captains courageous — The human adventure of discovery (1906–1990) from Sep 28, 2018 to Feb 10, 2019.

This exhibit chosen by the Museo delle Culture pays homage to the Italian 20th Century in the framework of the artistic and cultural program of events, that the City of Milan devotes this year to this important historical and artistic period. This exhibition falls within the “Geographies of the Future” project, a story about ‘geographic knowledge’ meant as a survey of lands and cultures through the lenses of different research disciplines.

“Captains Courageous” is a dedicated tale on the frontiers of 20th century explorations conceived in the scientific and cultural circles of Milan and Lombardy, touching mountain summits, space, and the depths of the earth, notably the latest geographic borders probed by professional explorers in a period — when the mapping of emerged lands had by now been completed thanks to the work of 19th century pioneers.

A spectacular setup and an extraordinary selection of original works will take the public on a dreamy voyage across the many adventures experienced by the explorers, such as the legendary conquest of K2 in 1954, Celestino Usuelli’s crossing above the Alps aboard an aerostatic balloon, the observations of Mars and the study of Lombard caves, the latest unexplored frontiers on earth.

Paul Klee — Alle origini dell’arte from Oct 31, 2018 to Mar 3, 2019

The exhibition Paul Klee. At the Origins of Art, features a wide selection of Klee’s works on the theme of “primitivism” and offers an original reassessment of this concept, which in Klee embraces pre-classical periods of Western art (like that of Pharaonic Egypt); epochs previously considered “barbaric” or decadent, such as those of Late Antique, Early Christian, Coptic and early medieval art; and lastly African, Oceanic and Amerindian art. The show is promoted by Milan City Council-Culture and 24 ORE Cultura–Gruppo 24 ORE, which is also producing it, and will present around a hundred works by the artist, on loan from major museums and private collection in Europe. It will also benefit from the extensive collaboration of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Ber

The show is promoted by Milan City Council-Culture and 24 ORE Cultura–Gruppo 24 ORE, which is also producing it, and will present around a hundred works by the artist, on loan from major museums and private collection in Europe. It will also benefit from the extensive collaboration of the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.

The concept of “primitivism” in Klee assumes different characteristics from those commonly associated with the historical avant-gardes. An interest in everything that was “wild” and “primitive” in art was awakened in Klee during his first stay in Italy, from autumn 1901 to spring 1902, when he discovered Early Christian art in Rome. After his trip to Italy Klee considered himself an “epigon”, literally last born, a tardy heir of a glorious civilization in decline. He would never rid himself of this conviction and it led him, as he recounts in his Diaries, to transform his disappointment into “style”.

MUDEC Permanent Collection: for the first time since the post-war period visitors can admire a selection of this valuable heritage in the rooms on the first floor of the Museum of Cultures, in an organic and carefully considered exhibition, presenting a fully restored collection of material and the results of new, in-depth research that has revealed previously unknown aspects of numerous masterpieces, some of which are being displayed for the first time.

MUDEC more than 200 works of art, objects and documents selected not only for their extraordinary cultural and aesthetic value, but also as evidence of our society’s ever-changing way of viewing unknown cultures: the sense of wonder inspired by the exotic (Section 1), the drive to evangelise and towards scientific discovery (Section 2), the desire for conquest (Section 3), and pressing trade motivations (Sections 4 and 5) have compelled people to travel and collect the most diverse range of artefacts, documenting the spirit of the age.

Manillas, bracelet money — Western and central Africa,19th/20th centrury. Different engraved metal alloys — Enrico Pezzoli Metallindustria Coll.- © MUDEC, Museo delle Culture Milano.

Section 3 is dedicated to the colonial period. A new breed of travellers, like Giuseppe Vigoni (1846–1914), senator of the Kingdom of Italy and mayor of Milan, headed towards far-off lands, no longer with scientific or religious aims, but with the goal of identifying exploitable resources in view of actual conquest. This section displays what remains of his collection, which was briefly on view in the 1930s in a room at the Castello Sforzesco along with other ‘colonial trophies’, such as the set-like panoply, a trophy made up of animal horns and African weaponry of various provenance, which has been reconstructed in the final case in the room.

MUDEC is walking distance from Porta Genova metro station line 2. How to get there.

Parallel 38°

Written by Parallel 38°

Stories from Korea. In pursuit of truth, impartial pov, fear/favorless, independent of party/sect/interests involved.

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