In the Garden of History - the Botanical Garden of Brera
Location: Orto Botanico di Brera
Adresse: Via Privata Fratelli Gabba 10
There is an oasis of green in the heart of Milan. Among the shops and majestic buildings of the historic neighbourhood of Brera, there is an ancient garden where, as early as the 1500s, monks cultivated vegetables and medicinal herbs. It was Arch-Duchess Maria Teresa of Austria who transformed it into a botanical garden in 1774 with an ambitious project to promote agriculture and art. Here, young students learned about the plant world and plants were grown for Brera’s nearby Spezieria or spice-works. A few decades later, Napoleon brought along exotic and ornamental plants and the Orto Botanico became a meeting place for all of Milan’s citizens. Today, the garden is home to scientific studies, but also a beautiful “living museum”, just a stone’s-throw away from the Pinacoteca of Brera. Restoration work in 2001 brought to light its original configuration, with two elliptical basins, an arboretum and overflowing flowerbeds. With truly useful herbs, rare species and greenhouses for tropical plants, there is a precious collection of hydrangeas and two Gingko Biloba that, at the ripe age of two-hundred-and-fifty-years old, represent the patriarchs of the garden.
A site-specific installation, conceived for the space of the agora, and which at the same time is a preview of the exhibition that Adrian Paci will hold at Mudec next Spring.
Ugo Rondinone in Milan: Nostalgia and the Desire for Redemption
The exhibition, between social redemption and existential reflections, offers a journey into the personal history of Ugo Rondinone and his family, originally from Matera, as well as into collective memory.
Created to enhance the museum’s collections, the exhibition displays a collection of “exotic” artefacts brought from different parts of the world by Milanese citizens, enthusiasts, businessmen, travellers, researchers.
135 years after her birth, the Diocesan Museum of Milan recounts the peak of Dorothea Lange’s career, when between the 1930s and 1940s the American photographer bore witness to the dramatic current events in the United States.