MUDEC – Museo delle Culture | Collezione Permanente

Milan (MI)

AM Lombardy and Aosta Valley

he Museum of Cultures project originated in the 1990s when the City of Milan bought the former Ansaldo industrial area for cultural activities. The disused factories, true monuments of industrial archaeology, were transformed into workshops, studios and new creative spaces. Against this backdrop, the City of Milan plans a multidisciplinary centre dedicated to the different testimonies and cultures of the world, an exhibition venue for the Civic Ethnographic Collections.

Ampia teca illuminata con maschere e sculture antropomorfe; sullo sfondo spicca un arazzo dai colori vivaci.

The Mudec - Museo delle Culture di Milano (Museum of Cultures in Milan), created to house and present the civic ethnographic collections to the public, opened its doors in 2015. After five years, the need emerged for a reflection on the role and responsibilities of ethnographic museums in the contemporary debate.
It was decided to reorganise the permanent exhibition based on an analysis of the effects - for Milan and seen from Milan - of the advent of an interconnected world, starting from the beginning of the modern age.

The visitor is accompanied in this flow through a selection of objects, many of them recently restored, from the collections of the MUDEC and other institutions, and will become familiar with complex concepts such as globalisation, imperialism, mercantilism.
In addition, through the collaboration of academics, experts, activists, cultural mediators, artists, bloggers and through the organisation of workshops with people with a relevant transnational biography, particularly critical issues were addressed.