Vorrei che questo fosse una canzone d'amore

Among the sculpted memories and rooms embroidered with memories of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, from June 25 to June 30, 2024, a small temporary exhibition by Ruben Montini comes to life, which is a true hymn to inclusion: on the occasion of Milan Pride week, some of the artist's works will find a home in this treasure chest of beauty, creating a vibrant dialogue between past and present.

The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, the beating heart of the city's history, bears witness to the grandeur and harmony that art has always brought to the Milanese capital and, in this context, Montini's work Vorrei che questo fosse una canzone d'amore, which also serves as the title of the exhibition, stands as a visual tale of poignant beauty.

Each embroidery thread evolves into a word of love and each decoration into a whispered secret. The work thus becomes a dance of colors, a sumptuous miniature that, while dealing with complex and painful themes, restores them as a prayer filled with hope and beauty, with continuous quotations of phrases from queer poets and singers. The cruelty of the experience of a part of humanity becomes art and art itself an act of sublimation that touches the soul and invites to reflection.

Alongside these showcases of emotion, Montini offers us three sculptures that resemble bouquets of flowers, made using different fabrics: from his typical Sardinian brocade, to Arab and African textiles drawn from his Barriera di Milano neighborhood in Turin. These works are more than just sculptures: they are an invitation to a gesture of affection and solidarity. Each, with its delicacy and strength, carries with it the promise of a gift: giving one of these flowers to a victim of homophobia or transphobia becomes a way to cradle pain in beauty and suffering in hope. Through her practice, the artist invites us to reflect on the responsibility each of us has to each other and to others and the importance of small but meaningful gestures.

Vorrei che questo fosse una canzone d'amore is not just an exhibition, but an emotional journey and an experience of discovery. It is an opportunity to get closer to the LGBTQIA+ community, to understand the stories and experiences these works tell, and to celebrate the beauty of diversity in all its nuances. The rooms of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, with their historical and artistic richness, thus become the ideal stage for an encounter between different eras, cultures and sensibilities, in a dialogue that enriches us and brings us closer to each other.

So we invite you to get lost among the colors, shapes and meanings of these works, to be touched by the intensity of Ruben Montini's visual stories and to discover with us the magic behind every queer gaze.

And as the sun sets over the streets of Milan take with you the knowledge that beauty really can change the world, one gesture at a time.