Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Sunday 29 September a whole day of music, theater and thematic walks to discover one of Milan's artistic treasures

Milan, September 26 2019 - "Open-air Museum" returns on Sunday 29 September, the exhibition promoted by the Municipality of Milan and created by the Milan Foundation - Civic Schools with graduates and students of the Claudio Abbado Civic School of Music, the Luchino Visconti Civic School of Cinema and the Civica Scuola of Paolo Grassi Theatre.

A whole day of free events with theatre, music, cinema and thematic walks inside the Monumental Cemetery.

The day will start from the external square, from which two types of guided tours will depart to satisfy the curiosity of visitors who are approaching the Monumental Cemetery for the first time or who want to discover more about its artistic beauties and its heritage of historical memories .

At 10.30 Danilo De Biasio (director of the Human Rights Festival), Walter Galbusera  (president of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation) and  Piero Basso (son of the politician Lelio Basso) will lead the walk “Swimming pools and Vietcong: a century of human rights in Milan”, a tribute to the Milanese by adoption who fought against abuse. At 11am Bruno Marasà (director of the Milan office of the European Parliament) will accompany visitors through "Europe: dream and project... and future"; at 11.30 Gianfranco Peletti (president of the Local Police Association of Milan) will lead a tour dedicated to the history of the Traffic Police of Milan; at 12 Ruben Jais, (General Director of the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Choir of Milan Foundation) will lead the public to discover the relationship between "Music and Thanatos" starting from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass, composed on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death by Alessandro Manzoni; at 14.30 pm Giulia Morra (CNR researcher) will lead the walk "How much science in care", to remember the importance of scientific discoveries in the medical world, yesterday and today; at 15pm Daniele Brigadoi Cologna (sinologist and sociologist of migration) in the walk "The first Chinese buried at the Monumentale" will talk about the origins of Chinese immigration in Italy; at 15.30 pm Stefano Mirti (president of Fondazione Milano) and Guido Guerzoni (professor at SDA Bocconi) will lead the "The project of desire" path, dedicated to seven protagonists who, in different eras and geographies, have fueled our desires, becoming pioneers of economic and cultural industries of the country.

The themed guided tours will also start from the external square, organized by volunteers from the Civil Service and employees of the Monumental Cemetery.
At 10am and 16pm the route "Adolfo Wildt - Artist without peace and without beauty" curated by Daniele Capovilla. At 12.30pm “Knowing the Monumental in seven steps” with Boriana Valcinova and at 14pm the visit “Writers at the Monumental” curated by Katia Castellazzi.

All walks and guided tours are free and can be booked at the gazebo starting from 9.30 am until the maximum number per group is reached.  

For the whole day, the documentary "The Dream Factory (ex Gamma Film)" by Roberta Borgonovo, a graduate of the Luchino Visconti Civic Film School, will be screened in the conference room. The film traces the history of Gamma film through the testimonies/stories of its former employees and some important professionals in film and television production of that period.

The theatrical program offers at 11am and 15pm, in the lower western gallery, "Freshwater Mermaid - in memory of Daniela Samuele" by Luca Rodella with Paola Campaner and music by Roberto Dibitonto, dedicated to the very young swimmer of the national team Italian player involved in an air disaster in 1966 together with his teammates. The athlete appears in the cemetery tunnels like a water nymph, a beautiful mermaid, free and impalpable, no longer fighting against time as when she competed in life.

At 12pm and 16pm, in the lower western gallery, “Canta che ti passa” will be presented. Bertani amputates Mameli” by Luca Rodella with Stefano Annoni and Giuseppe Palasciano and music by Roberto Dibitonto. In a corner of the cemetery there is a fierce surgeon in a pool of blood. It is not his but that of his friend Goffredo Mameli, fatally wounded during the Siege of Rome. The surgeon is the patriot Agostino Bertani, who, driven by guilt for not having managed to save his friend on that historic occasion, will use eternity to understand where and how he could have made a mistake. In a series of funny exchanges between Italian history and medicine, our two heroes will never be able to surrender to the fact that the past is buried with them.

The musical program is particularly rich and will open at 10am, in the upper western gallery, with the Autumn Concert of the Local Police Band. The Band, formed in 2011, is one of the three musical groups of the Local Police in Italy together with those of Rome and Turin. With a wide repertoire which includes, in addition to traditional military marches, also original songs and transcriptions of classical and contemporary music, the Band contributes to bringing citizens closer to the institutions and to the figure of the Local Police operator who the Milanese affectionately call "ghisa" .

At 12.30, in the small church, the concert organized by the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado, "There is nothing more beautiful than a guitar... except maybe two" in which the guitars of Davide Dipilato and Matteo Magaraci will play fugues , preludes, capriccios and rondos composed between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

The day's program ends at 17pm, in the Upper West Gallery, with the concert organized by the Civic Jazz Courses of the Claudio Abbado Civic School of Music “Jazz al Monumentale”, with Luca Zamboni, electric bass, Francesco Marra, electric guitar and Giovanni Good help, drums. The trio's repertoire revisits some songs by the greats of jazz, such as, among others, John Coltraine, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, in electric sounds and modern colors.

The last appointment of 2019 with the "Monumental: Open Air Museum" exhibition is scheduled for Sunday 27 October from 10am to 18pm.