ANIMALS, PLANTS, ROCKS AND MINERALS: THE ISPRA COLLECTIONS
> Towards a Mulltispecies Museum
PREVIEW
Wednesday, 14 December
11am – 1pm
Palazzo delle Scienze
Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, 14, Roma
From 14 December 2022, the Museum of Civilisations presents a preview of Animals, Plants, Rocks, and Minerals: the ISPRA Collections > Towards a multispecies museum reserved for press and authorities, from 11.00 to 13.00. Located in the Salone d’ Onore on the first floor of the Palazzo delle Scienze, the new dedicated exhibition showcases the paleontological and litho-mineralogical collections of the ISPRA-Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research.
Animals, Plants, Rocks and Minerals: the ISPRA Collections > Towards a multispecies museum is the beginning of a larger project towards the musealization of the ISPRA collections at the Museum of Civilizations. It is the result of a collaboration between the General Directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture, through the Museum of Civilisations, and ISPRA-Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research / National System for the Protection of the Environment, with the support of ALES-Arte Lavoro e Servizi spa. The project will be completed by 2024, where the ISPRA collections – consisting of over 150,000 animal and plant fossils, rock and mineral samples, geological surveys, scientific instruments, busts, portraits, memorabilia, and documentation – will integrate with and complete the curatorial path of the existing prehistoric collections on the second floor of the Museum.
On the occasion of the inauguration on 14 December, the monumental marble inlay created by Mario Tozzi in the early 1940s will shine again thanks to a new museographic lighting project. The inlay was part of the original decorative program of the Palazzo delle Scienze designed to house the scientific exhibition of the 1942 Universal Exposition in Rome.
The exhibition itinerary also includes the interventions of three contemporary artists, Adriana Bustos, Marzia Migliora, and Otonong Nkanga, which dialogue with the ISPRA collections and reflect the potential for the objects on display to undergo new experiences, connecting their stories to current climatic and geological urgencies.