The three-year term of the new director of M9 begins with a major exhibition dedicated to Banksy. An accessible museum, in which multimedia is an instrument of democratic inclusion.
As longstanding supporters of M9 and its crucial role as a driving force for growth and innovation, we wanted to get to know the new director Serena Bertolucci. A summa cum laude degree obtained at the University of Genoa, and a postgraduate diploma in Art History and Minor Arts at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan mark just the beginning of Bertolucci’s important professional journey within prestigious museum institutions in our country. “Her appointment – says Michele Bugliesi, President of Fondazione di Venezia – marks the beginning of a new phase in the life of the M9 museum.”
Your definition of Museum.
“Museums are permanent, not-for-profit institutions that serve society, conduct research, collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit material and non-material heritage. They are open to the public, accessible, inclusive, and promote diversity and sustainability. Museums operate and communicate ethically and professionally, they involve their communities, they offer diversified experiences for education, leisure, reflection, and knowledge.” This beautiful definition has been authored by the International Council of Museums, and I made it my own. The museum is the place I live in, a place that belongs to us all, the place where we keep our heritage, where we learn, and where we can also have fun. Associating museums with boring, stuffy exhibits is just not right, and yet, when we say ‘museum stuff’, that’s what we think of: dusty, old, useless things. Now, my ideal museum is quite the opposite: it is a democratic place, a place where each of us can find something to understand, and hence love.
The museum is the place I live in, a place that belongs to us all, the place where we keep our heritage, where we learn, and where we can also have fun. A democratic place, a place where each of us can find something to understand, and hence love
Your experience as a museum director: the essentials of museum management.
Never lose sight of the fact that museums belong to the community. A living museum has the courage to address everybody, because cultural heritage belongs to and touches everybody. In one word: accessibility. Not only physical accessibility, but cognitional, experiential. A made-to-measure experience for all publics. Authoritativeness and credibility are also essential: it means museums must be reliable in information and services, academically rigorous, open to sharing, fiscally responsible, attentive to their community’s needs. Currently, cultural needs seem to be waning, which means we must work hard to nurture some love for museums.
Attendance and cultural production. Your experience.
First of all, I don’t think those two are the only indicators we must consider when assessing the performance of a cultural institution. I believe a museum can do a good job when it does what it’s supposed to: create larger and larger waves of interest around it: events, exhibitions, conferences, educational events which in turn invoke and stimulate new actions and reflections, not necessarily to be taking place in museums. This is what I want for M9. I want it to be a driving force for curiosity and discovery, a place that is useful to its community’s well-being, and a reason of pride, too. This is what we mean by scope economies. If we’re good, we’ll get to scale economies, too.
This is what I want for M9. I want it to be a driving force for curiosity and discovery, a place that is useful to its community’s well-being, and a reason of pride, too
M9 is one museum of a kind. It is dedicated to the history of the 1900s, which is still a long way to settle. Much has been done over the last five years, and so much more needs to be done. What will M9 do?
The Twentieth Century is a perfectly apt lens to view the present. If you don’t understand that past, it is nigh-impossible to understand what is happening now – in these years, in these very days. War, women’s status, environment are very current topics. We need to understand that history is not some dusty old showcase, but a pair of spectacles that allow us to see things more clearly. This is what I want to carry out with my work at M9.
M9 used multimedia and temporary exhibitions extensively. What guidelines for 2024?
Making the two works together. To mix, to compare languages and techniques. Exhibitions on Banksy and Burtynsky follow this track. The two are international giants that have a lot to say on the important themes of modernity. Dialoghi nel ‘900, our itineraries on art and literature, also point in the same direction. We will also listen to our younger audience and to communities, and we will network with other cultural institutions around us. Education and life-long learning are in our radar, too, because every day is a good day to learn something new, and M9 must be ready and up to the chance always.
Mestre and Venice – so close, yet so different. How does M9 work in such a diverse territory?
Museums are bridges, places where diverse actors find a way to understand and welcome one another. Banksy’s exhibition was conceived this way: to give the tools to understand the migrant child that Banksy painted five years ago in the Venice city centre. Our goal is to create cultural heritage of shared knowledge that will help locals and visitors to better understand what happens around them. I would like this to be an example of good practices for global, powerful action, where each of us can find their place.
