MAMbo

No that’s not a dance, it’s the name of the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. In previous trips here I have never been to a single museum although there are many in Bologna. I have gone to 3 meetings at the cafe that’s next to MAMbo and decided that would be my first museum visit. Besides, who can resist a name like that. Well, I was quite underwhelmed. While the building is large, the museum only occupies one floor and at least half of that is dedicated to a single artist, Morandi. A wkipedia page for Morandi says that he lived his entire life in Bologna, from 1890 to 1964. He was especially known for still lifes (especially the same bottles over and over) and landscapes (ditto). After about the 10^th still life of bottles it gets, you know, a bit boring.

 I tried to take a picture but was quickly admonished that it was not permitted even without a flash. There was no sneaking photos because there was a monitor, it seemed a volunteer, that followed you around as though you were a potential shoplifter in a department store. A bit annoying even if I wasn’t planning to take pictures. Perhaps they have had problems with theft or vandalism or perhaps the monitors are just bored because there’s not much going on. I’ve always thought that being a museum guard/monitor must be one of the most boring and difficult jobs imaginable. You’d always be on your feet with little change in scene. Of course if there were a lot of people there’s some interest in people-watching but at MAMbo there were very few people.

 

In the end, I was quite disappointed and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone other than a serious Morandi fan. Perhaps it needs a few years to mature and expand to make it truly worth a visit. Sorry Bologna. I’m looking forward to another couple of museum visits to compensate for this one.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2014 at 2:02 am and is filed under Culture, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.