Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, May 29 2019 - On Sunday 2 June, on the occasion of the XVI European Day of Open-air Museums from 10am to 18pm, the public will be able to discover or rediscover the history of the city through one of its most evocative places, the Monumental Cemetery.

A whole day of free events with theatre, music, cinema, thematic walks promoted by the Municipality of Milan and the Monumental Cemetery in collaboration with ASCE (Association of significant cemeteries of Europe), with the patronage of the European Commission, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Lombardy Region and created by the Milan Foundation - Civic Schools, present with graduates and students from the Claudio Abbado Civic School of Music, the Luchino Visconti Civic School of Cinema and the Paolo Grassi Civic School of Theatre.

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 .

With thematic walks in the company of protagonists of today's Milan, the public will be accompanied by contemporary Milanese characters to discover the past: at 10am Carla De Bernardi, photographer, writer and President of the Friends of the Monumental, will lead the "Symbolism" route in search of of the symbols that artists and architects have inserted into the works that populate the Cemetery; at 11am the public will be able to discover "The fate of irony" a journey in the memory of great figures of comedy with Tito Faraci, comic book screenwriter, author of novels, essays, radio programmes, songs and, very often and very willingly, things to LAUGH; at 11am and 30pm Sergio Rebora, art historian and artistic curator of the Monumental Cemetery will lead "Discovering the Cinerary Gardens" which preserve the ashes of numerous protagonists of Milanese and Italian political, social and cultural life between Otto and Twentieth century; at 14 Mara Servetto, architect and co-founder of Migliore+Servetti architects, will lead the walk “Designing relationships” a journey from the Castiglionis to Joe Colombo and Gae Aulenti, between design and classic ideas at the Monumentale; at 30 the cardiologist and professor of Cardiology from the University of Milan at the Filippo Moglia Polyclinic will talk about the "Great doctors of nineteenth-century Lombardy"; at 12pm Anna Lori Ambrosoli will lead the walk “Milan 12 Solitude and freedom of a respectable man” in the year of the fortieth anniversary of the murder of her husband Giorgio Ambrosoli.

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 14pm Katia Castellazzi will lead a tour dedicated to "The Editors"; at 15pm Daniele Capovilla will discover "Liberty - a style for modern Milan"; at 15 pm the walk “The two cities: connections to discover” will start, curated by Boriana Valcinova.

Dedicated entirely to the restoration, at 10 and 30, the two walks with the students of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts which will end in the conference room with the meeting "The Brera Academy for the city of Milan: the restoration site at the Monumental".

All walks are free and can be booked at the gazebo starting from 9 am until the maximum number per group is reached. 

From 10am to 11am, from 12pm to 15pm and from 30pm to 16pm in the conference room there will be a screening by the Luchino Visconti Civic School of Cinema of two documentaries dedicated to the anniversary of June 18nd: I remember that directed by Giulia Olivieri , which collects testimonies on the days of war, the Liberation and the historic Monarchy/Republic vote and Walk alone dedicated to the first time women voted, on 2 June 2.

The theater program presents two theatrical shorts, written and performed ad hoc by graduates of the Paolo Grassi Civic Theater School. The protagonists of the short plays are the famous buried people of the cemetery who meet contemporary citizens, creating, through the ritual of the theatre, a small short circuit with the afterlife.

In the upper western gallery, at 10am and 30pm, Waiting for the Limoni - the last concert of the Jaga Brothers - by Luca Rodella, will be staged, with Stefano Annoni, Luca Rodella, music by Roberto Dibitonto, Francesco Marchetti and Diego Paul Galtieri - where in limbo, surrounded by instruments and musicians, two souls await the arrival of an answer. Perhaps by twist of fate or perhaps by a precise plan the two, wonderful friends in life, find themselves forced to kill eternal time with the sound of songs. A tribute to the great Gaber and Jannacci who here, behaving like the characters in Beckett's Godot, bicker nostalgically about how bitter and at the same time joyful the life they lived was. All this through the most poetic, angry and funny verses of their eternal songs.

At 12pm and 17pm in the Lower East Gallery, Giuseppina De Ponti will be presented – a fire never extinguished - by Luca Rodella, with Pamela Campaner, music by Francesco Marchetti – in which a fiery soul returns to the living. Fired with passion, will and discovery. It is difficult to put out this fire when one has been a philanthropist explorer in life, and a century of existence is not enough to exhaust the desire to act further to discover and improve this land. Giuseppina De Ponti is back among us, who after having spent one life as if it were ten lives, will necessarily have to savor the lifeblood that, unfortunately for her, only we still have.

The musical program organized by the Claudio Abbado Civic Music School will make classical and jazz notes resonate in the splendid setting of the Cemetery.

At 12 the chapel will host the concert "There is nothing more beautiful than a guitar... except maybe two" in which the guitars of Davide Dipilato and Matteo Magaraci will interpret fugues, preludes, caprices and rondos composed between the nineteenth century and Twentieth century. 

In the suggestive square at 17pm the day will close with the jazz concert "Le musiche" entrusted to the Civic jazz courses of the Claudio Abbado Civic music school and dedicated to Giorgio Gaslini, one of the central figures of jazz and of classical music in general of the twentieth century Italian, on the occasion of the five years since his death. To remember him, two great pianists will play, Enrico Intra and Alfonso Alberti, as well as a female group from the Civici corsi di jazz Le follie ensemble made up of Sabrina Sparti vocals, Mariangela Tandoi piano, Sarah Volpi double bass, Paola Tezzon violin, Veronica Moruzzi violin.

This year too, the volunteers who have joined the "Volunteers Energy for Milan" project promoted by the Municipality of Milan with the collaboration of Ciessevi will participate in the day and will welcome the public to the event. 

The events which will once again see theatre, music, cinema and thematic walks narrate the Monumental Cemetery and its beauties will continue every last Sunday of the month from June to October with the "Monumental: open-air museum" exhibition: 30 June, 28 July, August 25th from 10am to 13pm, September 29th and October 27th from 10am to 18pm.