MUDEC United #4
170 x 230 mm, 252 pages
Milan, Italy (Italian and English-language)
First published in 2023
Annual
Founder: Marina Pugliese
Editor-in-chief: Carlo Antonelli
Art direction: Studio FM Milano
‘A tribute to visions, outer worlds and friend-ships’
Published by Milan’s Museum of Cultures, MUDEC United is the eponymous institution’s annual publication ‘dedicated to exploring the themes addressed in the exhibitions organised by the museum.’
Lifting its title from Neal Stephenson’s 1994 sci-fi novel ‘Snow Crash’, a roving exploration of a looming information apocalypse that causes cognitive fog (or, ‘snow fog’) in its victims, this seasonally discordant fourth issue spotlights the museum’s latest exhibition: ‘Il Senso della Neve’ (‘The Sense of Snow’). According to the exhibition’s curator: ‘A natural element that may seem far removed from urban life, here snow becomes a powerful interpretative lens: a memory in the process of fading, an archive of ancient knowledge, a cultural landscape inhabited by communities that have built their lives in extreme conditions.’
Featuring a blend of contemporary art and philosophical inquiry, inside you’ll find written and visual contributions from the likes of Chiara Barzini, Björk, Mark Borthwick, AA Bronson, Pierpalo Caputo, Abby Chen, Ari Maropoulos, David Hammons, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, and more.
Choose between two covers: ‘Snowman’, Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s 2016 replica of a sculptural installation first commissioned in 1987, and General Idea’s 1990 styrofoam installation ‘Fin de Seìcle’, symbolising the AIDS crisis.