In Florence, Italy's first exhibition dedicated to the hill of utopia, Monte Verità

From November 19, 2021 to April 10, 2022, the Museo Novecento in Florence presents the first exhibition in Italy dedicated to the hill of utopia, Monte Verità. Curated by Sergio Risaliti with Nicoletta Mongini and Chiara Gatti and organized by MUS.E, Monte Verità. Back to nature, this is the title of the exhibition in collaboration with the Monte Verità Foundation (Ascona, Canton Ticino), is articulated in three stages starting from the philosophical origins of the Mount to the development of its architecture and the art of dance, to arrive at the memory of a remote place where a community of free men gave birth to an anarchic paradise, a magnetic center of culture and spirituality that marked a chapter of modern history.

Set up in the cloister spaces, the exhibition narrates one hundred years of utopia and ideals, virtuous encounters and aesthetic quests, from the vegetarian practice to the sunbathing of the Lebensreform, from the birth of theosophy to the free expressions of human genius through the harmonious exercise of the body, painting, and poetry. From the anarchist Bakunin to the Hungarian choreographer Rudolf von Laban, from the Dadaist Hugo Ball to the Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, from the artist Hans Arp to Paul Klee, from the writer Hermann Hesse to Carl Gustav Jung, many intellectuals saw in this place a buen retiro suspended in time and far from the drama of wars and the ideological clash between capitalism and communism that was sweeping Europe. Cradle of an existence based on primal rhythms, Monte Verità became a laboratory of a new culture, a counter-culture born against English conformity and dominant thinking that attracted thinkers, anarchists, philosophers, theosophists, men of letters, artists and architects from every country.

Period images, testimonies, virtual reconstructions, clothing and iconic objects thus tell the story of Monte Verità. The exhibition is enriched by a program with film screenings, lectures and book presentations and a book-catalogue dedicated to the history of Monte Verità with contributions by Sergio Risaliti, Nicoletta Mongini, Chiara Gatti and Luca Scarlini, complete with an iconographic apparatus that includes numerous historical images, reconstructions, projects and a registry of all the personalities who, over a hundred years have been linked to what Mario Botta has called “the laboratory of one of the most radical artistic and social utopias of the time.”

For info: museonovecento.it

Hours: Daily 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

Image: Joy in Freedom, Monte Verità Foundation, Harald Szeemann Fund (detail)

In Florence, Italy's first exhibition dedicated to the hill of utopia, Monte VeritÃ

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