I took my older son to this exhibition whose title could be (freely) translated as “Please do not touch”. It’s in the Triennale, and it’s only for kids between the age of 2 and 6. It’s an interactive exhibition dedicated to the little ones and inspired by Bruno Munari ‘s work. Munari, a famous Italian artist, had a great consideration for children and used to think their games were “very serious pastimes”. The exhibition is an interactive circuit where children discover things by touching them.

The public is divided into 4 groups and each one is led to one of the 4 “stations” of the exhibition. After 20 minutes in one station groups rotate. In the first one there are 8 big boxes that are apparently identical, children have to open them or look into some of the holes to (re)discover everyday things like stones or an ant. The second one is a collection of big cubes with a round hole and lined with different materials: glass, leather, metal, cardboard. Kids get to feel the difference between them with their whole body, not just their hands. At the third station you find tables which have been covered by tiles with different patterns. Children are given paper and crayons and are invited to discover patterns by passing the crayons over the paper lying on top of them. The last station is made of a back-lit wall that is covered in transparent fiches that have very simple drawings on them: a sun, a tree, a rain, a butterfly. These are the elements to play the game that Munari called “Plus and Minus”. By stacking many fiches together and then removing some, children can invent simple stories.

The overall experience lasts about 1 and 1/2 hours which is the perfect length for such a young crowd. My son (and I) had a great time and I’m thinking of sending him back with his daddy for a weekend outing!

Michela