The Museum
The museum, located in the Centro Fiera of Montichiari and opened in 2004, displays and preserves the finds of ethnographic interest from the Brescia area belonging to a collection created, in over thirty years of assiduous researches, by the painter Giacomo Bergomi (1923-2003) and donated in 1999 to the Municipality of Montichiari. The collection includes about six thousand objects from the Alpine and pre-Alpine valleys and from the plain and represents the most important nucleus of these museum assets in the province of Brescia, capable of documenting the historical reality of the local rural world over the last two centuries. The permanent exhibition houses about 800 objects and is divided into two sections: the first section intends to offer visitors an extensive reconstruction of the traditional cycles of the year and of human life, captured in their mutual intertwining as well as in their links with agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry activities; the second section presents metal and woodworking techniques with a look at the ancient crafts of the carpenter, carver, basket-maker, shoemaker, blacksmith and coppersmith. The collection includes about six thousand objects from the Alpine and pre-alpine valleys and from the plain and represents the most important nucleus of such assets in the province of Brescia, documenting the historical reality of the local agricultural world over the last two centuries. The permanent exhibition contains about 800 exhibits and is divided into two sections: the first section offers visitors a broad reconstruction of the traditional cycles of the year and of human life, seen in their reciprocal interweaving as well as in their connections with agricultural and forestry activities; the second section presents metal and woodworking techniques with a look at the ancient crafts of the carpenter, the carver, the basket maker, the shoemaker, the blacksmith and the coppersmith. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
In order to illustrate the environmental contexts from which the objects come from, some significant old images from the archives of the photographers Piero Vistali, Simone Magnolini, Giovanni Negri and the Swiss ethnographer Paul Scheuermeier accompany the exposition. Over the years, the Museum has also welcomed other donations of ethnographic finds: among them, the one that belonged to Italo Branca (pharmacist from Montichiari who worked in Bergamo’s Scalve Valley, where the objects were collected), and that of wooden toys made in the first half of the twentieth century at the Poli’s factory in Montichiari. A portion of the museum is dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The video and conference room with 50 seats hosts cineforums, concerts, meetings, handicraft courses for young and adult people. A large pupils’ area welcomes kindergarten and primary school classes to carry out specific hands-on workshops. Over the years, the museum has also received other donations of ethnographic finds: among these are the one belonging to Italo Branca (a pharmacist from Monteclaren who worked in the Val di Scalve in the Bergamo area, from which the donated objects come), and the one of wooden toys made in the first half of the 20th century at the Poli factory in Montichiari. A portion of the museum is dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The 50-seat video and conference room hosts film forums, concerts, lectures, and courses in handicrafts for adults and children. A large didactic room welcomes kindergartens and primary schools for thematic didactic workshops. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
OPENING TIME
From October till the end of May
Friday and Saturday 10-13 and 14.30-18
Sunday 14.30-19
In June, July and September
Friday 10-13 and 14.30-18
Last entry 30 minutes before closing
On other days of the week (from Monday to Friday) open on bookings:
+39 030 965045
info@montichiarimusei.it
Closed on the 25 and 26 December, 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May. Seasonal closing period is in August
Throughout the Museum
ADDRESS
Via Brescia, 129
25018 Centro Fiera BS
Tel. +39 030 9650455
Free of charge
The collector
Giacomo Bergomi (1923-2003) was a painter of marked realistic formation, inspired by his genuine experience of rural country life: his family found origin in the Adrara Valley, north of Bergamo, where they had worked as cow and sheep farmers and subsequently moved, as tenants, to a farm in the Bassa Bresciana, the flat farmland south of Brescia. The initial items of his vast collection of ethnographic finds from the Brescia area were old-time household goods and ancient farm tools, that the artist used to reproduce in his paintings. Bergomi improved his art formation in Brescia and in Milan where he attended the Cimabue and Brera Academies of Fine Arts. Then he travelled to various places in Southern Italy and other Mediterranean countries, he visited the Balkans and crossed over to South America several times. Everywhere he went he strived to capture the human condition of the poor farm labourers whom he represented with heart-felt sympathy and with remarkable etnographic care. The first pieces that became part of his vast collection of ethnographic goods from Brescia were traditional household objects and old work tools used by the artist as subjects for his paintings. Bergomi refined his education in Brescia and Milan, where he attended the Cimabue and Brera academies. He then travelled extensively in southern Italy and other Mediterranean countries, visited the Balkans and went to South America several times. In each place he always represented the human condition of the poorest agricultural workers, whom he portrayed with sincere participation and remarkable ethnographic scruple.
Cataloguing
In 2002 the Municipality of Montichiari started cataloguing the Museum’s exhibits on a BDM – S.I.R.Be.C. computer system according to the standards laid down by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Lombardy Region. The cataloguing is carried out by Michela Capra, the Museum’s Curator. Each object, which has been assigned an inventory number, is digitally photographed and a catalogue sheet is compiled to illustrate its characteristics. In the course of the work, during a series of meetings with the collector Bergomi himself, the testimonies and memories of the discovery of most of the objects were recorded, and, where possible, the place of origin, the author, the user and the function of use. Particular importance is given to local dialect terminology, both in terms of the name of the object and in relation to how it was made. A special critical apparatus provides specific bibliographic information and comparisons. The cataloguing data of each object can be viewed on the web portal Lombardia Beni Culturali at the link below:
Lo specchio e gli altri
Since 2006, Bergomi Museum has been organizing an annual festival of ethnographic films and documentaries entitled “Lo specchio e gli altri” (i.e. “The mirror and the others”), carried out in the Video and conference room. The name of the initiative is inspired by the saying “Others are the mirror of ourselves”: the relationships between the observer and the observed, for instance, determines the choice of the films of the festival. The ethno-videos do not just record what they show us in an immediate form (habits and customs, traditions and local knowledge, evidence of material and immaterial culture, peculiarities of the territories), but also, and perhaps above all, they represent the call to human contact, the working method, the cultural and scientific interests of those who made them. In this sense the others, for the anthropologist-filmmaker, are truly the mirror of the one who was able to film them with his videocamera. Alongside famous Italian directors such as Ermanno Olmi and Giorgio Diritti, the festival gives also space to the recent ethno-anthropological videofilm productions of young authors. Their works are mostly made in marginal places of a “minor” Italy, hanging between the persistence of ancestral traditions and the standardizing action of modernity. They offer interpretations that go beyond a nostalgic memory and invite to a critical and sometimes ironic reflection on the investigated realities. The name of the initiative is inspired by the saying “The others are the mirrors of ourselves“: the relationships between the observer and the observed, in fact, are at the basis of the choice of films in the review. The ethno-videos do not merely document what they show us in immediate form (customs and traditions, local traditions and knowledge, testimonies of material and immaterial culture, peculiarities of the territories), but also represent, and perhaps above all, the vocation for human contact, the working method, the cultural and scientific interests of those who shot them. In this sense, for the anthropologist-filmmaker, the others are really the mirror of the person who shot them with his video camera. Alongside renowned Italian directors such as Ermanno Olmi and Giorgio Diritti, the exhibition also and above all gives space to the recent production of young authors of ethno-anthropological video films. Most of their works are made in marginal places in a “minor” Italy, poised between the persistence of atavistic traditions and the standardising action of modernity. They offer keys to interpretation that go beyond a nostalgic memory and invite a critical and sometimes ironic reflection on the realities investigated.
The Rebèl Network
Since its foundation, the Giacomo Bergomi Museum has been a member of the Lombard Museums and Ethnographic Heritage Network (Rebèl). It was created to share common objectives in the scientific, promotional and didactic fields. It started from the observation that the Lombard ethnographic museums own a documentary heritage of great scientific value and of considerable social significance, by virtue of the collection, conservation, research, study and communication work that these institutes have been carrying out over the years. To see all the activities and publications edited by the Network, visit the website
The Network was established with the aim of implementing common objectives in the scientific, promotional and educational fields. It started from the observation that Lombardy’s ethnographic museums possess a documentary heritage of great scientific value and social significance, by virtue of the work of collection, conservation, research, study and dissemination that these institutions have carried out over the years and continue to do so. To consult all the activities and publications edited by the Network, visit the website:
