Hollywood director Wes Anderson turns art curator, with Spitzmaus exhibition at Milan’s Rem Koolhaas-designed Fondazione Prada
Moonrise Kingdom director and Lebanese writer Juman Malouf drew from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches for wide-ranging exhibition named after an ancient Egyptian mummified shrew
There’s a treat for Milan’s museum lovers, landing at the city’s Fondazione Prada from September 20.
Art, history, fashion and filmmaking come together in “Il sarcofago di Spitzmaus e altri tesori” (Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures), the latest presentation at the Rem Koolhaas-designed venue.
Conceived by US filmmaker Wes Anderson and regular collaborator Juman Malouf, a Lebanese illustrator, designer and writer, “Spitzmaus” – which means “shrew” in English – questions why we create collections like this, and how they are housed, exhibited and experienced.
“Spitzmaus” was originally presented at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum from November 2018 to April 2019, in collaboration with the Naturhistorisches Museum, two of Europe’s most prominent cultural institutions. The former houses a collection from the powerful Habsburg family, while the latter boasts more than 20 million pieces, making it one of the world’s largest natural history collections.
This broader, second iteration features 537 artworks and objects grouped together in a narrative – green objects, boxes, portraits, still life – selected by Anderson (director of the films Rushmore and The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Malouf (author of the novel The Trilogy of Two) from the Kunsthistorisches’ 12 collections (the Greek, Roman and Near Eastern antiquities, the Kunstkammer and Imperial Armoury among others) and from 11 departments of the Naturhistorisches.
Paying homage to one of the exhibits, Coffin of a Spitzmaus, a 4th century BCE Egyptian wooden box and its mummified shrew, the exhibition of rooms and vitrines is compiled like a treasure chest, and reflects on the kunstkammer/wunderkammer model – the “cabinet of curiosities” – to challenge traditional museum processes and relationships.
“Spitzmaus” runs from September 20 to January 13, 2020, at Milan’s Fondazione Prada.