discovering another Italy at the Mucem
Rediscover Italy from a new angle thanks to the exhibition Another Italy – a transalpine primer which will be held at the Mucem from May 25 to October 10. The museum’s collections room will house in its 130m² a hundred objects on the initiative of Raphaël Bories, curator of this exhibition and head of the beliefs and religions center of the Mucem. ” The majority of the objects date from the 19thand and XXand centuries but I have tried to give a fairly broad panorama. The oldest are archaeological objects from the excavations of Pompeii, and the most recent from the XXIand century with the works of a Milanese graffiti artist “, he explains.
The exhibition will take the form of an alphabet book, like all those organized in the collection room. A constraint that the commissioner described as ” quite interesting and fun and which also has the merit of allowing the presentation of small thematic files with a grouping of objects around a strong idea “.
Italy is often represented in the collective imagination and in museums by precious objects intended for the elites of societies, such as productions from Greco-Roman antiquity, the great works of the Renaissance, or even objects Papal Rome. Here, none of that. ” It’s another Italy more diverse both geographically and socially “Summarizes Raphaël Bories. With elements from remote regions, such as Calabria in the south or the alpine valleys in the north, representative of modest and popular lifestyles. Everyday objects, handicrafts, works of art or items related to beliefs and religions. ” We realize that finally, some of these objects, which are rather chosen a priori as artisanal, can also be regarded as real works of art because there is a real aesthetic that concerns them. “says Raphaël Bories.
Unrecognized cultural diversity
The curator coordinated this exhibition as a specialist in Italy in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but also because of his area of responsibility within the museum. ” At the Mucem, I take care of everything related to beliefs and religions and many of the objects that come from Italy are precisely linked to this theme and to the magico-religious practices of the populations, especially in the south of the country. “, he explains. Among them, ex-voto, objects allowing to claim supernatural strength after a wish has been granted, fetishes or even amulets, supposed to protect from the evil eye.
The objectives of this initiative are multiple. ” First of all, it’s about showing this other Italy and showing all the cultural diversity that there can be in a neighboring country that you feel you know very well. he declares. This allows in a second time to highlight the work of the ethnologists of the XIXand and XXand centuries who went directly into the field, to meet the inhabitants of these regions, to collect these objects.
While, during the transfer of certain collections from Parisian museums to the Mucem, certain information concerning them was lost, the exhibition makes it possible to find them, bring them together and thus ” recreate a link to restore their strength to these objects by showing them to the public he concluded.
Ticket : 11€ (permanent exhibition
and temporary).