The undisclosed price of free-art.

Today I went to the Triennale di Milano, one of our best museums (after the already mentioned PAC).
I wanted to see an exhibition about women skin, seen through art and science. Not bad, you could think; the approach is for sure uncommon. And so I thought, why not going?
As soon as I arrived there, I discovered it was free. In my mind this always sounds like a possible swindle, talking about art exhibits, but I anyway entered "the curve" (a part of the museum hosting the show).

The introduction tables, hanging on the entrance, were enough clear about the strategy: the presentation was made possible thanks to sponsors, very famous, that were P&G and Boots Laboratories.
The idea for this project is very simple and subtle: we show you a lot of "skin", artistically talking, and we inform you about the importance of that, from the philosophical, ethical, historical, scientific  points of view. Oh, yes moreover, Boots Lab has taken care of your skin for more than 160 year… and still continues now with dedicated lines of products always renewed.

Well, I said, that's ok, let's see what happens…

The path to follow was organized in sections, each taking care of a precise aspect of the skin world, starting with the first baths and skin-care products (all coming from the Boots archives) and then introducing, little by little, the artistic skin, the painted skin, the tattoos, the photographed skin and the "pop" skin reproduced and colorized by Warhol. There was at least one piece for each artistic age, and they were all good pieces.

There was also a video tunnel, where horror scenes involving skin were showed. This was linked to the italian way of saying: "far accapponare la pelle per la paura". It's something like "it gives me gooseflesh", when you are scared by something. All the sections played with Italian sayings related to the skin. We have a lot of proverbs like that (enough to make an exhibition like this...).
I could see, for free, masterpieces by Rodin, Toulouse Lautrec, Balla, Savinio, R. Lichtenstein, Mimmo Rotella, Fontana, Warhol, Andres Serrano, Vanessa Beecroft… but these are only few names!

There was also a section dedicated to the skin as the organ for the touch and, from that, the organ for seeing (for blind people). This part was little but tremendous. There were the books used by the Milanese Institute for Blind People, written in the Braille way. And also gypsum reproductions of great paintings, the only way to "see" art at least through the touch. Those things really gave me gooseflesh, I can assure you.

I was very happy for the time spent inside "the curve". There was even the possibility to take a picture of you, to be shown on a wall before the exit and leave a trace of you there. But for the first time I declined this kind of offer. I was already satisfied by the done experience.

But then, when I completely forgot about the sponsors, here they were again… there was a glazed cabinet, completely filled with Boots products.
It was exactly like waking up by falling down your bed.

This is the undisclosed ticket of the sponsored exhibitions!