Admiranda e Arcana Naturae

OPENING: 2 JULY, 5:00 PM
free admission

The Exhibition

Admiranda e Arcana Naturae is the group exhibition curated by Giulia Pollicita, inaugurating the programme for the twentieth anniversary of Fondazione Morra Greco (2006–2026).

Promoted and co-financed by the Comune di Napoli as part of the 2026/2027 cultural programme, and realised in collaboration with MUSA – Museo Universitario delle Scienze e delle Arti dell’Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” and Magazzini Fotografici, the exhibition will be open to the public from 2 July to 30 September 2026.

Admiranda e Arcana Naturae

Hosted in the spaces of MUSA, the exhibition brings into dialogue contemporary artistic research with the museum’s anatomical collections, one of Italy’s most significant scientific heritages dedicated to the representation of the human body.

The title draws inspiration from two recurring concepts in scientific travel literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: the admiranda, the wonders of nature observed by travellers and translated into scientific and pre-scientific languages; and the arcana naturae, the opaque, ambiguous and hidden territories that inhabit those same accounts and that soon became objects of study.

The exhibition brings together international works, some from the Collezione Morra Greco, spanning an arc that moves from the archaeological finds of Pompeii and Herculano to eighteenth-century anatomical models, through to the most recent artistic practices. The result is a transtemporal and transcultural itinerary through Enlightenment heritage, colonial memories, biopolitics and contemporary debate on body, gender, identity, technology and decoloniality.

Artist on View

Maria Thereza Alves, Lizzi Bougatsos, Carmela De Falco, Yvonne De Rosa, Beatrice Favaretto, Delia Gonzalez, Renato Grieco, Emiliano Maggi, Isadora Neves Marques, Valerio Nicolai, Diego Perrone, Giulia Piscitelli, Anri Sala, Markus Schinwald, Namsal Siedlecki, Miroslav Tichý, Francesca Woodman.

Public Program

The project encompasses a series of stages and workshop activities between June and October, realised in collaboration between Fondazione Morra Greco, MUSA and Magazzini Fotografici. Educators, young artists and audiences of different age groups will be involved in experiential activities and interdisciplinary restitution pathways.

The partnership between the three institutions forms part of a broader collaborative journey between cultural organisations along the axis of Via dell’Anticaglia, Naples, and marks the beginning of future joint projects.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Comune di Napoli,

MUSA – Museo Universitario delle Scienze e delle Arti dell’Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”

Magazzini Fotografici

for their essential collaboration go to: all the artists; Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples; Galleria Clima, Milan; Galleria Ermes Ermes, Rome; Galleria Fonti, Naples; Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan; Galleria Umberto di Marino, Naples; and Studio Maria Thereza Alves, for the loans granted.

We would also like to thank Fonderia Nolana and Kai Vollmer for their invaluable collaboration in the realization of the project, and Akhet Edizioni.

A Special thanks also to the Director of MUSA, Prof. Michele Papa, and to the Technical Director of MUSA, Arch. Raoul Basile, and to all the MUSA staff, in particular to Lucia Marrese, Brunella Iorio, and Simona Marsilia.

The initiative is promoted and co-financed by the Comune di Napoli as part of the 2026/2027 cultural programme.

Information

Opening: 2 July, 5:00 PM

Dates: 2 July – 30 September 2026 Venue: MUSA – Museo Universitario delle Scienze e delle Arti, Via Luciano Armanni 3/5, Naples
Opening hours:
– Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri
10:00–14:00 or by appointment
– Wed
10:00–16:00 or by appointment
– Weekends by appointment

Info:
info@fondazionemorragreco.com 081 19349740