CULTURE
Welcome back to City Museum!
July 30, 2020

Three days of meetings, exhibitions and digital initiatives to celebrate the collections of the city's museums through the theme WOMEN PROTAGONISTS, dedicated to artists, collectors, intellectuals and muses of Milanese culture.

From 31 July to 2 August 2020 Milan will host the fourth edition of Milano MuseoCity, an initiative promoted by the Municipality of Milan and realised in collaboration with the Associazione MuseoCity, created to raise awareness of the rich artistic heritage of the city's museums and enhance their cultural function. Starting on 31 July, the museums involved will be opening their physical or virtual doors to the public, offering hundreds of events including guided tours, special openings and special initiatives, all characterised by the leitmotif of the theme WOMEN PROTAGONISTS, in perfect harmony with the theme The Talents of Women of the Cultural Palimpsest 2020 of the Milan City Council's Department for Culture. This year's edition of Milano MuseoCity, in fact, aims to highlight not only the talents of artists, collectors, intellectuals, but also to enhance the works of the Milanese museum collections depicting women: a way to bring to the attention of the public the commitment, creativity and intuition of women, with the dual aim of enhancing the heritage of museums and promoting a culture that recognizes the important contribution of women to history and contemporary society. The Fratelli Cozzi Museum has enthusiastically taken part in the initiative and has created a video story about women that will soon be available on Museocity's youtube channel.
The event - part of the Aria di Cultura programme, Milan's summer cultural programme - involves around 80,000 people every year and over the years has grown to include more than 85 art and history museums, science museums, museum houses, artists' houses, archives and business museums in the city and the metropolitan area, all of which will be involved in meetings, exhibitions and events designed to enhance their cultural function and heritage. This year, in order to ensure the greatest possible participation in compliance with safety regulations, the 72 public and private institutions taking part in the event are proposing a programme based on the new requirements of distance and restricted access, but also many digital initiatives: 28 institutions are proposing events in presence, 26 only in digital and 17 those presenting both in-presence and virtual activities. Among the institutions present for the first time the Archivio Atelier Pharaildis Van den Broeck, with a new exhibition project, focused on the theme Women protagonists, which presents unpublished works by the artist together with archive materials; the Archivio Rachele Bianchi, which opens the virtual doors to the rich production of the sculptress; the Archivio Storico Fondazione Fiera Milano, which participates in Museo Segreto with a video entitled Le Donne nella storia della Fiera Campionaria; CASVA, Centro Alti Studi sulle Arti Visive del Comune di Milano, which presents the video "Tutela Femminile Plurale. CASVA & QT8 @COntenitore COntesto. Visions" with the extraordinary participation of the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica della Lombardia; the Fondazione Ca' Granda with an extraordinary opening; MEET Digital Culture Center, which presents three videos on the theme of cultural innovation with the Meet the Media format; the Museo dei Cappuccini - Milan, which reopened in November 2019 after a long renovation, and organizes guided tours by appointment; the Fratelli Cozzi Museum, with a video presentation on the MuseoCity YouTube channel; the MuTeF | Museo del Teatro di Figura, a museum not yet open, which shows a preview of its spaces and projects. As every year, the MuseoCity Association takes care of some of the most important special initiatives of the event: INVISIBLE MUSEUM (from Friday 31 July), a virtual behind-the-scenes look at the museums, a podcast to introduce and tell their stories, uploaded on the MuseoCity channels; SECRET MUSEUM (31 July - 2 August), an itinerary curated by Gemma Sena Chiesa dedicated to The Ladies of the Museums, which allows each participating museum to present works from its collection inspired by the world of women: from the women portrayed in paintings and sculptures, to collectors, donors, benefactors of an institution, from the testimonies of love for the arts to the women who are the main protagonists of the event. the love of art shown by great female figures, and the attention paid to equal opportunities in scientific and business collections.
On Saturday 1 August there will be WOMEN AND INNOVATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM, an international conference broadcasted on the YouTube channel of the Association MuseoCity: a public debate dedicated to the best practices of some women committed to changing the common perception of the museum, making it a place of welcome and education for different audiences. The podcast of MUSEO INVISIBLE and the videos of the international conference will remain available online even after the end of the event. The 2020 edition will also be enriched by MUSEO DIFFUSO: an APP (downloadable at app.museocity.it) with all the information about the participating museums, the works of art on the facades of Milanese buildings of the 20th century and over 40 works of Street Art in augmented reality granted by MAUA-Museo Arte Urbana Aumentata, to discover city itineraries outside the centre and the ordinary art circuits. Milan's buildings include: Palazzo Castiglioni, in Corso Venezia, with sculptures by Ernesto Bazzaro; Palazzo dell'Informazione, in Piazza Cavour, with bas-reliefs by Sironi; Palazzo Mezzanotte, in Piazza Affari, with sculptures by Leone Lodi and, inside, decorations by Gio Ponti. Special initiatives include the exhibition ROBERTO COTRONEO. NEL TEATRO DELL'ARTE (ROBERTO COTRONEO. IN THE THEATRE OF ART), curated by Denis Curti at Palazzo Reale - Appartamento dei Principi; Friday 31 July: at 6.30 pm, a guided tour of the exhibition "Franco Grignani. Lo spazio di una magia sorprendente" and "Carte de Visite. A neighbourhood photo album" at the Mufoco - Museum of Contemporary Photography and "Mario Cattaneo. Leggerezza di un tempo" set up in Piazza Gramsci in Cinisello Balsamo; at 9.30 p.m. the screening in the garden of the PAC Padiglione Arte Contemporanea of the film Heart of a dog by Laurie Anderson, thanks to the collaboration with the Cinemobile Summer Tour of the Cineteca di Milano. Also among the digital initiatives, the online appointment online: Vestals, Clothes and Museums - a conversation between the "ladies of the museums" of the Storie Milanesi circuit, the Fondazione Adolfo Pini project that tells the story of the protagonists of Milanese culture, curated by Rosanna Pavoni; the special streaming programme of the Cineteca Italiana, which presents a review of films linked to female artists and some period films/documentaries relating to the city of Milan; the video of Lavinia Galli's conference on Rosina Trivulzio (1800-1859) and the Trivulzio Foundation's education in beauty, in collaboration with the Poldi Pezzoli Museum; the virtual guided tours of the company museums (Collezione Branca, Galleria Campari and Fondazione Pirelli). The complete programme of all the initiatives will be available on www.museocity.it and www.yesmilano.it. On the occasion of Milano MuseoCity 2020, from 31 July to 2 August the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia Valle d'Aosta can be purchased online and at Milan's points of sale at the special rate of €40* (instead of €45).