“La voce delle ombre”

The anthropological exhibition “La Voce delle Ombre. African Presences in the Art of Northern Italy” is one of the first exhibitions in Italy on this subject.

Curated by the scientific staff of the Mudec museum the project investigates the modes of artistic representation of men and women from the African continent in northern Italy between the 16th and 19th centuries, and it is part of the broader research project that began with the reorganization of the museum’s permanent collection.

The exhibition is an initial attempt to identify different ways of depicting the other, revealing canons and clichés of this type of image and attempting to restore identity to these figures through the recovery of their human events and the role they played in the society at the time. Through the exhibition of works of different kinds, coming from important public and private institutions, it will be possible to reflect on the perception and representation of otherness, distinguishing historical characters from mythical ones and stereotypes from real people.