Five must-see exhibitions in March in Milan
Design, contemporary art, photography, paintings, sculptures and installations… Selection of five new exhibitions to see in March (and until the end of spring) in Milan.
Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini, Design and Architecture | ADI Design Museum
Two design giants brought together in the same exhibition at the Adi Museum in Milan. Installed in the main gallery of the museum which opened its doors in May 2021, the retrospective allows you to browse a part of the history of our consumer society, from the 1970s, through products (some very well known) and the work of two protagonists of design and architecture: Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini, who died in 2001 and 2019 respectively.
The exhibition brings together the creations of the two designers and architects, it confronts the modern design method of Zanuso, who began working at the end of the 1950s when everything had to be invented, with that of post-modern Mendini who finds himself from its beginnings, immersed in a consumer society, and which must therefore seek to give meaning to what has already been done.
The exhibition develops in the long central corridor of the museum, and collects the creations and writings of the two protagonists: the famous stackable children’s chair created for Kartell in 1964, the TS 502 television and radio, the Grillo telephone from Siemens , the Lady armchair by Zanuso for Cassina, or the Proust by Mendini, right up to the corkscrews designed for Alessi.
At the end of the route, a special installation dedicated to the Compasso d’Oro prize: Zanuso won seven, Mendini won two. It is one of the most influential and oldest international product design awards, established in 1954 by Gio Ponti.
Until June 12 – piazza Compasso d’oro 1, entrance via Ceresio 7
Joaquin Sorolla, painter of light | royal palace
The first major exhibition in Italy of the Spanish impressionist painter, who likes to describe the atmospheres, the scenes of life by the sea, in the open air and the feeling emanating from nature. The retrospective is made up of 60 paintings covering Sorolla’s artistic evolution, from his works supporting denunciations of society to the portraits of family and friends by the sea that made the Spanish artist the one of the most popular of its time. Among them, Sewing the Sail, which depicts fishermen’s wives repairing sails under a bright sun.
Until June 26 – piazza del Duomo 12
Maurizio Galimberti, a look at our history | Diocesan Museum
Renowned photographer Maurizio Galimberti reinterprets our icons, characters and facts in a series of photo mosaics spanning history from 1945 to today. For the first time, the Diocesano Museum is exhibiting the artist’s most recent work (2020/21): 30 large-format creations which are neither shots of landscapes, nor architecture, nor portraits, but an investigation historical based on photographs of 20th century reporters. These shots were re-photographed with a Fuji Instax (the artist is famous for using the snapshot to express himself), cut, re-elaborated and assembled, to give birth to a mosaic of details. The images of his fellow photographers were of course not “stolen”, the clichés of the past were transposed into a contemporary reality.
Historically, the exhibition began in 1945, from the battle of Iwo Hima to reach the present day with the evacuation of Kabul airport last August. And throughout this journey, figures such as Pope Wojtyla, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Judges Falcone and Borsellino, and historical facts such as the Milan shootings in Via De Amicis in 1977, the Vietnam War, the twin towers or the Covid-19 pandemic.
Until June 1 – piazza Sant’Eustorgio 3
“Metaspore” is the first Italian exhibition by Anicka Yi, a Korean artist living and working in New York, one of the most innovative figures on the contemporary scene.
The artist combines languages and themes, from philosophy to biology, from politics to science fiction. The huge space of Hangar Bicocca hosts more than 20 installations from several disciplines, investigating the concepts of metamorphosis and interdependence. Both exhibition and immersive, the course induces the sensory experience of visitors, with works presenting an olfactory dimension, but also works that undergo the processes of transformation of matter.
Until July 24 – Free admission with mandatory reservationfrom Thursday to Sunday – via Chiese 2
A journey through 20th century Italian art through 40 works selected from the collections of the Vatican Museums and produced between the end of the First World War and the 1970s. Paintings and sculptures chosen for their sacred themes. The exhibition in fact presents artists who have elaborated Gospel episodes with a wide variety of styles and languages, between tradition and expressive research, from Casorati to Carrà, from Pirandello to Messina.
From March 11 to June 5 – Piazza Sant’Eustorgio 3