Bruna Esposito. Giganti miniature. Ipotesi circa il museo e note sul carnevale: MUSEUM EXHIBITION

4 March - 31 August 2025 
Overview
Museo delle Civiltà – Palazzo delle Arti e Tradizioni PopolariPiazza Guglielmo Marconi 8, Roma
Curated by Matteo Lucchetti and Andrea Viliani
 
The artist Bruna Esposito (Rome, 1960), with the exhibition giganti miniature. ipotesi circa il museo e note sul carnevale – curated by Matteo Lucchetti and Andrea Viliani – presents the outcome of her two-year Research Fellowship at the Museum. Over the course of her research, which focused in particular on the Prehistoric and the Arts and Folk Traditions Collections, the artist conceived an exhibition that, starting from its title – written in lowercase yet larger than the rest – establishes a dialogue between different scales, and therefore different perspectives on the museum, also incorporating the “world turned upside down” that is typical of Carnival.
 

 

"Giganti Miniature" – Exhibition by Bruna Esposito

Bruna Esposito (Rome, 1960; lives and works in Rome) conceived 16 proposals during her two-year Research Fellowship at the Museo delle Civiltà (MUCIV) in Rome. These were presented not as finished works, but as conceptual prompts—on paper, in mosaics, or through audio-video captions—inviting the museum and its visitors to rethink the collections and their storytelling.

The exhibition was aligned with Carnival, a festivity that subverts norms and rituals for a short time, creating a “world turned upside-down.” Similarly, Esposito’s proposals question traditional ways of displaying and interpreting heritage.

The title—Giganti Miniature (“Giants Miniatures”)—is itself an oxymoron. It reflects a paradox: the imposing Fascist-era architecture of the museum, built for the unrealized 1942 Universal Exposition, contains tiny artifacts from across time and cultures—objects that are miniature “giants” of history and meaning.

Esposito approaches the museum as a place of transformation and contradiction, exploring tensions between monumental and minuscule, visible and hidden, declared and omitted.

The exhibition design revolves around two geometric ideas:

  • The square: A symbol of unity and protection (“fare quadrato”), represented by four historic central display cases containing the smallest and most delicate artifacts, surrounded by new cases that hold Esposito’s notes, sketches, and conceptual revisions.

  • The circle: Marked by a ceiling fan at the center of the room, from which colorful plastic strips hang and brush against the cases. This gesture suggests cycles of time, ongoing dialog, and displacement—while also playfully recalling the swatting of flies from market stalls.

A central theme is uncertainty, represented by the tilde (~), meaning “approximately.” Esposito juxtaposes artifacts—mainly small and ambiguously dated—from different departments, such as Prehistory and Popular Traditions, encouraging viewers to question museological categories and narratives.

Among her speculative proposals, one has already been adopted: the donation of a Viareggio Carnival allegorical float. Specifically, she suggested acquiring Pace armata (“Armed Peace”), a 12-meter-high papier-mâché figure created by master float-maker Alessandro Avanzini for the 150th Viareggio Carnival. The giant depicts a young person in a gas mask helmet with a rainbow-lined cloak—a striking visual plea for peace.

This intervention challenges the boundary between high art and popular culture, recognizing the cultural weight of Carnival floats—ephemeral yet monumental works that animate papier-mâché with imagination and critical commentary.

Together, the 16 hypothetical works offer a liberating journey through the Museo delle Civiltà, proposing new ways for its collections to tell stories that are ancient yet continually renewed.

Source: Museo delle Civiltà – “Giganti Miniature” exhibition page (museodellecivilta.it)

Installation Views