Oct 4th, Bologna Medieval Museum

10/4     Friday

            It is the day of the St. Petronius festival, and most of the streets in the city core are closed to traffic, hurray. Lots of people are out and there are buskers and balloon vendors with inflatable ponies and Nemos. There will be a choir concert and the Cardinal’s blessing later in the day.

            We want to visit the Medieval Museum, which is right near the plaza in a grand 15^th Century Palazzo . We get our audio guide and walk through the rooms of the museum, mostly small and softly lit, with a nice lady attending each area. One chamber is filled with carved sarcophagi and memorial tombs of the professors who had taught at the university. Normally these sculptures would be dedicated to saints or royalty, but in Bologna, the educators are honored. The carvings depict the professor at a desk, with attentive students on each side, an educational Last Supper.

            A guard lady motions for us to continue to a dark downstairs room, where she turns on the lights to reveal cabinets filed with illustrated manuscripts and medieval books. These are gorgeous! We can imagine the monks drawing the lines for the musical notes or working in the gold leaf with a tiny point. We remember the books from the Tallone press, continuing the tradition these historic texts embody.

            We return to the National Gallery to see the industrial photo show there. We learn that we are here in time for the Foto Industria Bologna, or F/I, a new exhibition series, intended to continue as a biennial, exploring the relationship of photography and industry, and set in some fifteen venues throughout the city. It’s a very interesting concept, showing works that are not typically presented to the public as art.

            This exhibit contains a collection of corporate books, annual reports and such from the 1950’s to 1980’s. The Mirelle Thijsen, a bald Dutch woman who is present and very excitedly explaining her concept to another visitor who is getting so much personal attention, she must have a local art connection. A second, huge room is filled with large photos by Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert, who exploits the access he’s given to take corporate brochure photos to take great artistic scenes of factories and various industrial sites that are normally off-limits for viewing.

1 Video Included

 Bologna Medieval Museum