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He has been teaching Cultural Anthropology at the University of Insubria (Como, Italy, since 2001) and director of MUSEC since 2005. For almost thirty years he has been working on anthropology of art, museology and the management of organisations operating in the cultural field, alternating research activities with academic teaching, the management of cultural institutes and museums and consultancy at European level for institutions and local authorities. He has carried out field research in New Guinea, Bali and Laos. To date, he has curated some 100 permanent and temporary art exhibitions in several countries and has to his credit dozens of books and art catalogues, as well as hundreds of scholarly articles in journals and collections. His favourite work, preserved and enhanced by MUSEC, is the small yipwon, a true "portable sculpture", an expression of a refined plastic reflection and an aesthetic that integrally involves the life of a society in spite of the judgement of "ultra-primitive" that almost up to the present day has burdened the peoples of Sepik (Papua New Guinea).
After graduating in Classical Archaeology from the University of Lausanne and in Museum Studies from the University of Neuchâtel, she worked for three years at the École Suisse d'Archéologie en Grèce, before joining the MUSEC working group in 2010, where she currently holds the position of Assistant Director.
In the field of museology, she has been involved in the analysis of organisational models, with a particular interest in medium-term planning and the operation of exhibition and dissemination activities.
He graduated in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University in Milan, with further education in Zurich and San Diego.
He worked in Zurich as a project manager in an airline in the field of product/service development and in 2016 he returned to Ticino to take over the financial-administrative management of an industrial trading company.
At the same time Luca has always been involved in art as a side-job, specifically he has been active in the trade of antique paintings of the Flemish-Dutch school.
Thanks to his language skills (he speaks five languages) and his organisational and team-working abilities, thanks to MUSEC he was able to combine his professional and personal skills with his passion for art in the management of an important and complex museum.
MUSEC's favourite works are the samurai armours from the Morigi Collection.
With a degree in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology and a specialisation in Museology, Museography and Cultural Heritage Management, she has worked in numerous museums and tourist facilities: Musei Civici in Milan, Istituto Cervantes in Rome and Magma Gallery in Bologna. She is passionate about Middle Eastern art and culture, which she studies and explores on a daily basis. Her favourite work among those exhibited and kept at MUSEC is a Chinese gold pin covered with kingfisher feathers, from the Antonini Collection of combs and head ornaments.
Paolo has worked in the Lugano administration for many years. He has worked in different offices, starting with the Social Intervention Institute and then moving on to the police and the personnel service. Since 2006, he has been part of the MUSEC reception team and, in addition to dealing with visitors, he has various tasks to do with logistics.
He loves to surround himself with friends and is a big fan of sports, fashion and technology.
His favourite work in the museum is the sculpture of the rain deity from New Ireland.
Marta Santi has been responsible for the conservation and fit-out workshop since 2018.
Architect and project manager, after graduating she specialised in the retail sector. She works for important multinationals in the sector, in Italy and Switzerland, for which she is responsible for the realisation of numerous international projects.
He met MUSEC in 2010 on the occasion of the first exhibition of Japanese photographs from the Ceschin Pilone-Fagioli Collection, whose works are still his favourite.
Selene holds a degree in conservation with an orientation in archaeological and ethnographic works from the Haute Ecole Arc in Neuchâtel. Over the years, she has worked in the field of conservation and restoration with various museums both in French-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino.
In 2020, she decided to undertake a new degree course in Museum Studies at the University of Neuchâtel. This path brings her closer to MUSEC, enabling her to collaborate on the mounting of several exhibitions and the conservation of the museum's collections.
Her favourite work originates from New Guinea, it is a chewing lime container with a handle carved in the shape of a bird from the Brignoni Collection. Selene loves this artefact because it protects and preserves the contents inside just as a museum does with its works.
Valeria graduated in History from the University of Florence with a thesis on the use of photography as a historical document. After a period of study at the Sorbonne University in Paris, she worked for the Gallimard publishing house, collaborating with the in-house graphics department. Once back in Italy, she worked as a freelance professional for graphic studios and publishing houses. In 2009 she founded her own studio in Milan, specialising in the communication of cultural events, art exhibitions, festivals and museum activities, taking care of every aspect: image, advertising, exhibition graphics, catalogues and merchandise. She designs books and publishing series, logotypes and packaging. Some of his most recent collaborations are with LaBiennale di Venezia, Palazzo Reale di Milano, Contrasto, Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma, Palazzo Ducale di Genova, Festival MiTo Settembre Musica, Civita, Giunti, Mondadori, Gruppo Gems, Musée royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Pinacothèque de Paris. Since 2010, he has been collaborating with MUSEC and is very fond of his collection of Japanese photography.
Junita Arneld joined MUSEC in 2006, working on projects to enhance the museum's Indonesian art collections, particularly those relating to the cultural traditions of the Dayak people, from which she is originally. Having deepened and perfected her knowledge of photography - her eternal passion - in 2012 she was awarded the title of best Indonesian photographer in the Gallery Photography Indonesia Foundation (GPI) competition. In the following years, her landscape and travel photographs, taken during numerous explorations of the Indonesian archipelago, were selected for group exhibitions in South Korea and Indonesia. Another photographic genre she researches is still life.
Since 2013 Junita Arneld has been a member of the Governing Board and Jury of the GPI Foundation's photography competition. Since 2015 she has been supporting the activities of the MUSEC Conservation and Exhibitions Laboratory as a photographer. Her favourite works at MUSEC are the samurai armours from the Morigi Collection.
Paolo Maiullari is responsible for research and exhibition activities. He has a degree in Science of Cultural Heritage and Activities and a Master's degree in "Intercultural Trainers of Italian for Foreigners" from the University of Insubria in Como and Varese.
In 2003, he approached the Museum through the Brignoni Collection from Borneo, a region where he has been carrying out field research since 2000 and where MUSEC has one of the most important collections of monumental dayak sculpture in the world.
In 2010 he joined the MUSEC research group. Since 2013 he has been in charge of the "Altrarti" cycle of projects.
His favourite works are the ceremonial sculptures of the Dayaks of Borneo, the ceremonial paddle of the Tubuai Islands and Japanese woodcut prints.
Having taken an early interest in anthropology thanks to a philosophy teacher, Moira pursued this passion throughout her university studies, eventually obtaining a PhD in Anthropological Sciences from the University of Turin in 2007. Since 2008, she has been assistant professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Insubria. She arrived at MUSEC in 2012 with a scholarship to study the photographic collection of the Ceschin Pilone Foundation. Her encounter with the photographs in the collection began her passion and study for Japan and Japanese art, which continues to this day. Moira is in fact responsible for the Japanese collections and the photographic fund of the Yokohama School. She has carried out fieldwork in Bamenda in Cameroon (2001 and 2005), among migrant communities from sub-Saharan Africa in northern Italy (2007) and in Japan in 2018. In her spare time, she devotes herself to discovering gardening and local products, as a counterpoint to a career studded with the exotic.
After graduating in History and Protection of the Archaeological, Artistic, Archival and Book Heritage at the University of Florence, Nora moved to Paris where she specialised in the History of Collecting, earning a Master's degree and a PhD at the Université Sorbonne.
She approached MUSEC precisely because of her interest in collecting, a discipline not only linked to the history of taste, objects or the art market. As a human phenomenon, the history of collecting is also the history of ideas, anthropology, sociology, politics and economics.
What fascinates her most is investigating the human creativity that expresses, through a work of art, an entire culture. Her favourite works are the top sections of Borneo ceremonial ironwood poles from the Brignoni collection.
After his early training in the arts, he graduated in Philosophy at the University of Milan. He then graduated in Pedagogical Sciences at the University of Milan-Bicocca with a research on the organisational, managerial and pedagogical dimensions of museum educational services. At the same university, he specialised with a postgraduate course in Museum and Art Anthropology. From 2012 to 2022 he worked at Fondazione PInAC, the Pinacoteca Internazionale dell'età evolutiva A. Cibaldi in Rezzato (Italy), dealing with the coordination and supervision of museum educational services, design, research and curatorship of numerous exhibition projects and publications in the field of children's artistic expression.
Among his favourite works in the MUSEC collections is the wooden sculpture from north-east India depicting two Nāga ancestors. He is moved by the simplicity and sobriety of the forms and the delicate gesture of contact that denotes the intimate bond between the two people.
Antonio Aimi is an Americanist working on the interpretation of sources (artefacts and texts) of pre-Columbian cultures at the intersection of several disciplines (anthropology, archaeology, history, aesthetics). He has been teaching Pre-Columbian Civilisations at the University of Milan since 2003 and has been co-director of the university's activities in Peru since 2006.
He has curated several exhibitions on pre-Columbian cultures and written dozens of articles and books. Some of his publications can be downloaded from: https://unimi.academia.edu/AntonioAimi
As a native of the province of Parma, he loves good food and applies scientific research methods to choosing the tastiest specialities. He has been collaborating with MUSEC since 2005 and his favourite work is the precious Maori hei-tiki pendant from the Brignoni Collection.
She has a degree in architecture from Milan Polytechnic, a diploma in Indian language and culture from Isiao and a master's degree in anthropology from Bicocca University. She is also a certified yoga teacher.
She has been collaborating with MUSEC since 2005, when the management called her to study some Indian ceremonial chariot parts from the Brignoni Collection. From that moment on, Giulia began a long and enriching research in the field.
Her biggest hobby is undoubtedly her dog Dorotea, with whom she shares a passion for trekking and research in general, each in their own way. She loves going to museums and has a real perversion for cookbooks, spices and tea. She often travels through India -and beyond- with cup, teapot and leaves in her backpack. Her favourite work in the MUSEC Collections is the beautiful sculpture of the Ganga, goddess of the river, flowing between worlds and connecting them.
Adriana ha a degree in Ethical and Political Philosophy and Communication Sciences from the University of Fribourg (CH), she is in charge of the Higher Education, Development and Communication Sector.
She has had a fruitful career in French-speaking Switzerland, particularly in the field of coordination, production and promotion of the performing arts and cinema. She has worked with various national and international organisations, all of which have in common their focus on the interaction between different artistic languages, including the visual arts.
She came to the Museum on her return to Ticino, and Adriana is entrusted with the task of accompanying training and research projects, born of collaboration with academic institutions. The aim is to encourage the pooling of skills and networks, in a logic of growth and territorial integration. Transformed into a 'talent hunter', Adriana is always on the lookout for students, young researchers and civil servants to integrate into the Museum's activities; she also organises seminars to support the staff's exhibition and research activities.
Her impeccable welcome, both professional and warm, is appreciated by the varied public of experts and enthusiasts who come from all over the world for the seminars and other activities offered by MUSEC.
Among her favourite works in the MUSEC collections are the large carved poles of men's houses from faraway Melanesia, which particularly impressed her during her first visit to the MUSEC permanent exhibition.
After a working interlude in a bank, she decided to enrol at the University of Bologna, where she graduated in Contemporary Art History.
Returning to Ticino in 2007, she responded to an internship offer from MUSEC, which after a few months turned into a research job, which she was particularly passionate about and involved in due to the wide variety of topics covered. Her main scientific interests concern anthropology and the history of collecting, exoticism, Primitivism and the fascinating relationship between Western culture and the arts of tradition. Being part of the MUSEC team for many years, she has had the opportunity to touch different areas and hold different roles; she started by following the educational activities of the museum and then dealt for over 10 years with photographic projects, from their design and implementation, to their reiteration in other venues. Since 2019 she has been enthusiastically involved in communication.
Alessia loves going to the theatre, concerts and practicing kundalini yoga. She lives with her suitcase packed by her bed, loves discovering new places and getting to know the local people with their stories and traditions. Her favourite works from the MUSEC collections are Asmat sculptures for their decorative motifs and Japanese prints for their colours and elegant lines.
Maddalena graduated from Queen Mary University in London with a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures, and then went on to specialise in culture by completing a Masters in Cultural and Creative Industries at Kings College in London. After her studies she moved to the United States where she lived for five years working in sales and marketing for a sustainable consumer products company. In 2008 she moved to Lugano to follow her family. In these years she has always been involved in cultural projects related to the enhancement of the territory and in an intense activity of development of relations with foreign countries. In 2012, she played an active role in founding the Swiss chapter of FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, promoting its membership and organising events aimed at rediscovering the artistic and scenic heritage of Ticino and Lombardy. From 2014 to 2019 she collaborated with the Human Rights Film Festival of Lugano, for which she created and developed the fundraising project Amici FFDUL and cultivated relationships with sponsors. She joined the MUSEC team in 2020 and holds the position of Club delle Culture manager. The MUSEC work that she prefers for its extraordinary method of realization composed of intertwined leaves and twigs, is the large sculpture of Oceania in tree fern called nenna.
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