What is the role of the vitrine within the context of an ethnographic museum? How do we interact with objects displayed inside vitrines? What is the role of the museum, a container of culture, thus a vitrine itself? These, and many more, are the questions explored in Exposure: Art, Culture, Fashion in and out of the Showcase, not merely an exhibition, but what could be defined as a broad reflection, unfolding all around the museum’s radar. Starting from the ethnographic collection of MUDEC, the project, curated by Katya Inozemtseva and Sara Rizzo, indeed extends to a rich program of events, talks and interventions taking place even beyond the museum’s walls, running until 8th September 2024.

With its central focus on the Vitrine – the most emblematic object in the history of museology – Exposure delves into the multiple meanings that historic objects and artifacts acquire when displayed in a showcase. For many, the image of a traditional museum is easily conjured by visualising ancient objects behind glass walls, ready for observation but untouchable. This scene often evokes childhood memories of curiosity, wonder, and fascination with foreign worlds and cultures. However, the act of placing an object inside a vitrine and exhibiting it in a museum raises a series of complex issues that are far from simple, but which should in fact be given more consideration. The vitrine is a container with a contrasting nature indeed: on one hand, it generates an aura of desire and interest around objects, enhancing their perceived significance and aesthetic, while protecting them from external influences or actions in order to preserve their state and value. On the other hand, objects within vitrines are decontextualized and can be therefore distorted. We often face objects that have been removed from their original environment, and consequently displayed in a way that often limits the understanding of their historic and cultural backgrounds. Exposure tackles this dichotomy, presenting a thought-provoking examination across three areas of MUDEC, each exploring the theme from a different perspective. Simultaneously, the project fosters a dynamic dialogue between past and present by juxtaposing historical artifacts with contemporary artists’ interventions.

Mark Dion (1961), ‘Riding Neptune's vault. Cabinet A’, 1997/98. Vetrina con frammenti di vetro, ferro, plastica, Collezione privata

‘Luce dietro Tracce Incompiute’ is a site-specific installation by the Mexican artist Marianna Castillo Deball (b. 1975), situated in the central atrium of the museum, the Agorá. Debuting in October 2023, this intervention precedes all exhibitions at MUDEC, serving as the museum’s introductory space and welcoming area for all visitors. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the Agorà resembles an enormous vitrine with high ceilings and glass walls that filter natural light from all angles, and constitutes the space from where the various exhibition itineraries branch out. In this striking setting, Marianna Castillo Deball has installed seven large textile sculptures, which she refers to as fragments. These sculptures are inspired by seven fabric fragments from the MUDEC archive, reproduced on a larger scale during a workshop the artist conducted with students from NABA. By enlarging these fabric fragments, Castillo Deball brings visibility to objects that are typically confined to the museum’s storage, initiating important reflections addressed by Exposure and continued throughout the museum’s subsequent areas. This installation creates a monumental vitrine around visitors, suggesting a reversed experience where the museum itself becomes a container of culture and an envelop for its audience.

The second episode of Exposure develops on the rooms of the permanent collection of MUDEC with ‘Crocodile on a ceiling,’ an intervention by Theo Eshetu (b. 1958), multimedia artist whose practice explores cultural interconnections, as reflection of his multiethnic background. Starting from the artist’s reflection on the origin of the museum, this work challenges the traditional ethnographic displays and questions the role of museums nowadays, trying to shift those from being fossilized reflexions on the past to places of dynamic inspiration. Eshetu therefore presents his own interpretation of the Wunderkammern – or ‘cabinets of curiosities’ – from where the museum’s concept originates. With his intervention, the artist turns upside down a selection of objects displayed in different vitrines, offering the viewer an alternative point of view and, by doing so, increasing the attention towards certain objects and the way in which they are showcased. The Crocodile becomes central to Eshetu’s work, constituting an important historical reference. Included in many representations of the Wunderkammern as main trophy amongst other artifacts, the crocodile has always been an ensign of richness and fierceness. It can be found also in churches, hung down from the ceiling to symbolize the triumph of faith over evil. At MUDEC, Eshetu reproduces various scenes with the image of the crocodile through video artworks shown on screens attached to the ceiling, highlighting the bridge between the animal’s natural environment and the human sphere, where it is de-contexualized.

Installation view, ‘Exposure’. © Jule Hering, Courtesy MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Milan

Following the permeant collection rooms is the exhibition itself, Exposure: Art, Culture, Fashion in and out of the Showcase, spread over the temporary exhibition halls and focused on the essence of the Vitrine. The first room presents a historical perspective, with specific interest on the actual structure of the vitrine and its taxonomy function. Here, different kinds of objects are showcased inside vitrines (provided by various Italian Institutions), following the traditional European classification. Ornaments are categorized by type or theme, as this highlights the absurd limits and de-contextualizing issues inherent in vitrine displays. This room also explores the theme of value, questioning how we perceive the worth of showcased objects. This is particularly relevant to the context of commercial windows as vitrines of desire, especially linked to the fashion world, explored within the area of Milan. The second and final room of Exposure takes a more contemporary approach, featuring works from significant contemporary artists, including Mark Dion (b. 1961) and Damien Hirst (b. 1965). These artists revisit issues of object identity within vitrines, playing with various objects and concepts, until overcoming the barrier of glass completely. The work by Monia Ben Hamouda (b. 1991), shown at the end of the exhibition path, transcends the traditional vitrine by making it disappear and allowing the full presence of the work in the space and a direct dialogue with the public. This approach emphasizes the evolving relationship between art, display, and viewer interaction, pushing the boundaries of how we experience and interpret cultural artifacts.

As with Exposure, the program at MUDEC offers a unique opportunity to rethink the traditional museum and explore the deeper meanings and implications within the context of ethnographic collections, considering their complex origins rooted in the history of exploration, collecting, scientific development and colonial dynamics. Today, museums like MUDEC continue to evolve, addressing ethical issues and seeking to promote intercultural understanding and respect, to the point of proposing multidisciplinary programs and interventions that extend outside the museum and dialogue with the contemporary audience in increasingly effective ways.

Installation view, ‘Exposure’. © Jule Hering, Courtesy MUDEC – Museo delle Culture, Milan

To support this purpose, MUDEC created MU Magazine, a hybrid of exhibition catalogue and magazine, that every year explores the theme integrated in the ethnographic collection of MUDEC across interviews and articles by scientists, historians, artists and critics from all over the world. The magazine serves in fact as a 360 exploration of the theme, connecting it to a wide variety of fields, touching not only on the arts-museum sphere, but enlarging to the broader human experience, psychology and science. This year, Editorial Director Carlo Antonelli conceived the issue of MU Magazine from imagining Earth as an enormous vitrine, containing other hundreds of vitrines with which we interact during our daily life, so expanding the theme to a variety of disciplines. As MUDEC Director Marina Pugliese explains, the issue becomes ‘the showcase of the showcase, an incubator of thoughts and shapes.’

With this multifaceted approach, the project not only showcases artifacts but also sparks wider conversations about the role of museums and the ways in which we encounter and interpret cultural heritage, also outside the museum’s context.