To mark the launch of the “Start” initiative, currently being promoted by 24 Milan galleries, the Lia Rumma Gallery in Milan is pleased to present The Strange Museum, a project by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov.
The Strange Museum is a complex installation which completely transforms the space of the gallery by making its rooms resemble those of a late eighteenth-century provincial museum. The interior is divided into three parts by six pilasters which emerge from the two lateral walls; a high band of listel fillets in dark wood covers the lower part; higher up, a floral frieze in gold stucco runs along the entire perimeter of the walls. Three large canvases are displayed next to each other towards one of the sides of the gallery, each of them mounted on pedestals and placed inside transparent Plexiglas cases. The room is wreathed in semi-darkness and conjures up the almost religious atmosphere of a traditional museum. The only source of light is that provided by the spotlights, pointed towards both the front and the back of the three canvases. On the back of the paintings, placed between the wooden strips of the canvas frame, there are extremely delicate shapes in the form of small white wings. The front of the canvases bears realistic subjects, painted using traditional techniques.
