MILAN MUSEUMS 2024: A NEW LENS OF EXPERIENCING THE PAST AND EVOLVING FUTURE — PART I
As children, visiting museums filled us with glee. They were new and unknown spaces that carried the wonders of the untold. As adults, our perspective shifted, and museums became repositories of knowledge. They became “portals to the past and gateways to the future.” This paradigm shift in perception made museum visits exclusive, reserved for a “selected” few. Times seems to have evolved now as museums are creating innovative exhibitions that engage the public in interactive ways, erasing the imaginary lines between visitors and non-visitors; making museums more inclusive.
Image courtesy: Toiletpaper Magazine
Here are some of the museums that are actively working to humanise the museum visiting experience.
Triennale Milano
If an art enthusiast finds oneself in Milan, they cannot miss a visit to the Triennale Milano, a significant cultural hub of Italy. It houses a collection of over 1600 design objects, providing a historical voyage into the political, cultural, and social contexts of their times of creation. This year, the Triennale is organising various exhibitions like The Theory of Form by Roberto Sambonet, Gae Aulenti (1927-2012), The true story of Alessandro Medini, among others covering various subjects of art forms. A standout is The Imperfect Home by Inga Sempé.
Image courtesy: Gianluca Di Ioia
The Imperfect Home is showcased from April 15 to September 1, 2024. According to Marco Sammicheli, curator of this exhibition and director of the Triennale, this exhibition pays homage to the unpolished yet vibrant aspects of domestic life by curating a sensory experience of the “everyday ordinary”.
In this solo exhibition, Sempé affirms that imperfect is the new perfect. The exhibition, housed in ‘The Design Platform’ has been converted into a large scale home interior with over a hundred objects within seven fully furnished rooms. Sempé’s focus on everyday household objects and their industrial production, is resonated in the displays that include furniture, homeware, and personal items like dirty dishes, crumpled bed sheets, half-burnt candles and hanging laundry to evoke a lived-in feel.
Image courtesy: Gianluca Di Ioia
Sempé distances herself from the conventional marketing rules and presents timeless objects in a relatable environment. The visitors are not provided with a catalogue. They are lured into an investigative exploration that borders on a privacy invasion but that presence is of no one but of the visitor itself. Sempé’s messy yet meticulously curated aesthetic is brought to life by the sound of an alarm clock, scattered maps, and opened jar of coins. The living room features some of Sempé’s earliest works, such as the pleated fabric PO/202 floor lamp by Cappellini, alongside recent designs like the Colorado rug by Nanimarquina. In the kitchen, visitors can admire the Column cabinet fronts for Reform, Collo Alto cutlery from Alessi, Filigraani plates from Iittala, and the whimsical Guichet clock from Moustache. This approach creates a sense of realism that the visitors can connect with. The interaction offered by the curator, underlines the notion that objects of our daily lives can also act as design elements in museum set-up.This tangible form makes the experience more personal and immersive because the interaction blurs the line between public and private spaces.
This utilitarian presentation of objects in their natural form narrates the story of our possessions; underlining that design is not only about aesthetics but also the functionality and emotional connections we form with our possessions.
Image courtesy: Gianluca Di Ioia
Toilet Paper House
Toilet Paper is primarily a biannual magazine and a creative studio co-founded by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. Since its inception in 2010, Toiletpaper has ventured into diverse projects like product design, advertisements, exhibitions, etc. Known for their quirky, irreverent style that speaks directly to the audience, they have created quite a fanfare, especially among the younger generation.
Toilet Paper has created their signature way of celebrating contemporary art, constantly evolving with every venture. They have been busy this year with various international exhibitions, like VillaToilet Martin Medici PaperParr in Rome, Toiletpaper: The Studio in Seoul, UNTITLED for Miami Art Week & Art Basel in Miami, Cadillac House Toilet Paper Paradise in New York, and Toiletpaper for Galerie Blanc in Montreal.
Image courtesy: Toiletpaper Magazine
A standout among them is the recently introduced rentable apartment in Milan. Located on the first floor of Via Balzaretti 8, the Toilet Paper Apartment, distinguished by its pink façade named “Holes of Paradise,” opened on April 12th during Milan Art Week. This unexpected domestic installation merges restlessness with apparent lightness, providing a surreal yet oddly reassuring experience.
The apartment’s decor features bright, tropical wallpapers with birds and flowers with eyes, polka-dotted pouffes with red-lipped mouths, and colourful snakes on rugs and tabletops, setting the tone for a unique Milanese vacation. The dressing room houses a cabinet of curiosities with psychedelic items available for purchase via an app and tablet in the apartment. The bathroom showcases a collage of snakes and lipsticks, while the kitchenette includes a candy-pink Lavazza coffee machine and a Roses with Eyes fridge, a collaboration with Samsung. The space is flagrantly anti-minimalist, combining colours, fabrics, and images in a frenetic yet harmonious blend of luxury, pop, irreverence, and chic. It includes eclectic pieces like The End stool by Gufram, and the terrace, described as a “jewel,” offers views through large windows with a glass ceiling. The living room exudes a ’70s vibe with LondonArt wallpaper featuring wide-open eyes, frogs, bowling pins, cats, and tongues. Each piece—from the cabinet to the armchairs, vases, and table—demands attention with its mesmerising details and playful aesthetic.
Image courtesy: Toiletpaper Magazine
The living area also features images from ToiletAlexPaperPrager, a collaborative photographic project with American artist, director, and screenwriter Alex Prager. This project includes twelve works by Prager and twelve by Toiletpaper, exploring themes of humour, artifice, and the absurdity of life. Pierpaolo Ferrari noted that despite differing techniques, their works share conceptual and aesthetic affinities, exploring contemporary society openly. Toiletpaper’s captivating aesthetics and visual disruptions blend seamlessly with Prager’s enigmatic world, creating an ambiguous and alluring experience. This collaboration revitalises the blurred boundary between reality and fiction, offering a playful yet unsettling experience where certainty gives way to endless possibilities.
Text by Shalini Passi
Image Courtesy: Toiletpaper Magazine & Gianluca Di Ioia.
Find out more about Inga Sempé’s The Imperfect Home and Toiletpaper House:
https://triennale.org/en/events/inga-sempe-casa-imperfetta
https://www.toiletpapermagazine.org/miart-design-week-2024.php
