At Mudec in Milan an exhibition on Rodin and dance, in collaboration with the Rodin Museum in Paris

From Oct. 25, 2023 to March 19, 2024, Mudec in Milan is hosting the exhibition Rodin and Dance, in collaboration with the Rodin Museum in Paris, from which fifty-three works come. The three exhibition sections, through a complex and painstaking six-handed work, are curated respectively by Aude Chevalier, assistant curator of the sculpture department of the Rodin Museum; Cristiana Natali, professor of South Asian Anthropology, Dance Anthropology and Ethnographic Research Methodologies at the University of Bologna; and Elena Cervellati, associate professor of History of Dance and Dance Theories and Practices at the Department of Arts, University of Bologna.

The multimedia and interactive set design has been designed and created by the design studio Dotdotdot: the rooms of the museum will be transformed into a theatrical environment, where stage wings, full and empty spaces and evanescent transparent fabrics alternate with rough plasterboard panels and video projections, to create a poetic dialogue with the works in an emotional crescendo that ends with an interactive installation, where the visitor becomes the protagonist. The exhibition aims to recount through a novel and original exhibition project the fascination that dance had on the artistic genius of Auguste Rodin. On the one hand, dance was an inspirational muse for the artist in the early 20th century; on the other hand, contemporary dance still finds inspiration from the artist through his dancing works.

For the first time, fifteen statuettes of dancers dedicated by Rodin to Dance Movements will be exhibited in Italy as a series. Fourteen are in fact from the Rodin Museum in Paris, and this nucleus, on the occasion of the exhibition, will be joined by a fifteenth statuette, preserved at GNAM, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. The statuettes will also be compared with a selection of seventeen drawings by the artist and five photographs, from the same collection.

The exhibition project is the result of a careful philological reconstruction of the path of plastic experimentation that Rodin pursued throughout his life and that the Paris museum has been conducting for years, along with the restoration and conservation of these very fragile terracottas.

Along with this collection, which represents the first major focus as well as the first section of the exhibition itinerary, focusing on the artist and the study of the movements that represent Western dance as the highest bodily expression in plastic and sculptural art, Rodin’s fascination for dance will also be illustrated by the story-a multimedia storytelling-of his encounters with the greatest dancers of the time, such as Isadora Duncan, Loïe Fuller, the dancers of the Cambodian Royal Ballet, and the Japanese dancer Hanako. This is the second major theme/section of the exhibition: the relationship Rodin had with the non-European culture of Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodian dance and the contamination between Western and Southeast Asian art in performance and theater as well as the influence this had on a substantial rethinking of the concept of the body in movement within his very personal artistic research. In the rooms it will be possible to admire a selection of objects from Italian ethnoanthropological museum collections (prints, small sculptures, musical instruments, puppets and shadows).

The narrative will then be completed through video testimonies, excerpts from films and documentaries both related to the dancers Rodin met during his life and career, and related to Cambodian culture and its dances. The dance world will be mutually inspired by Rodin’s great work. Indeed, many contemporary dance choreographies are still inspired by him today. Indeed, this is the third theme and section of the exhibition: a unique visual comparison between modern ballets and their sculpted inspiration.

In addition, the exhibition will also be an opportunity to see a video selection referring to contemporary choreography and choreographer artists who have drawn inspiration from Rodin for their performances. The dialogue between Rodin’s sculptures and the multimedia and digital apparatus, together with the immersive installation, are thus intended to create a constant play of visual and symbolic cross-references.

The exhibition is produced by 24 ORE Cultura - Gruppo 24 ORE, promoted by the Municipality of Milan-Cultura and has Fondazione Deloitte as Institutional Partner.

For info: www.mudec.it

Hours: Monday from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

At Mudec in Milan an exhibition on Rodin and dance, in collaboration with the Rodin Museum in Paris

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