From December 14, 2022, the Museum of Civilizations presents Animals, Plants, Rocks and Minerals: the ISPRA Collections > Towards a Multispecies Museum, a new exhibit dedicated, in the Hall of Honor on the second floor of the Palace of Sciences, to the paleontological and litho-mineralogical collections of ISPRA-Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale.
Animals, Plants, Rocks and Minerals: the ISPRA Collections > Towards a Multispecies Museum constitutes the start of the project for the overall musealization of ISPRA’s collections at the Museum of Civilizations and is the result of a collaboration between the Directorate General of Museums of the Ministry of Culture, through the Museum of Civilizations, and ISPRA-Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale/National System for Environmental Protection, with the support of ALES-Arte Lavoro e Servizi spa. The project in its entirety will be completed by 2024 on the second floor of the Museum, where the ISPRA collections-comprising more than 150,000 animal and plant fossils, rock and mineral specimens, geological surveys, scientific instruments, busts, portraits, relics and documentations-will complement and complete the prehistoric collections itinerary.
On the occasion of the Dec. 14 opening, the monumental marble inlay that Mario Tozzi created in the early 1940s as part of the decorative program of the Palazzo delle Scienze, designed to host the science exhibition of the 1942 Rome World’s Fair, also returns to shine-thanks to a new museographic lighting project.
Interventions by three contemporary women artists, Adriana Bustos, Marzia Migliora and Otonong Nkanga, also enter into dialogue with the ISPRA collections during the visit, and together they suggest the possibility of new experiences of the exhibits and connect their stories to current climate and geological urgencies.
The opening day will be accompanied by a program of guided tours (2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) led by researchers and curators from ISPRA and the Museum of Civilizations, while the opening evening (6 p.m. – 10 p.m.) will feature the presentation of performance works by artist Marzia Migliora and choreographer Boris Charmatz [terrain] curated by Matteo Lucchetti, along with the Suth DJ set, bar and finger food party, curated by NERO.