Dracula

Been having a good, busy weekend. My friend Stan was here for just one night, in the middle of a trip. (He's already in Provence at this point!) We had a quick visit yesterday and today. Stan's been here in Milan a lot before, he actually lived here a few years as a kid and has come back for visits every few years, so we didn't have to do the "typical" sights. After having lunch in Brera, we headed over to the Triennale. The latest special exhibit is on Dracula. It's a bit of an odd exhibit, not completely dedicated to one aspect of Dracula, but not quite a themed art show.

The first section was about the history and myth of Dracula and vampires, building up to how Bram Stoker broke through by connecting Vlad the Impaler to vampirism. This part had lots of informative text, and historic artifacts including old books on Vlad, on vampires, vampire charms, and Ottoman arms and armor. It talked about Stoker's research, portrayals of vampires in his day, and ended with the first edition copy he gifted to his mom. So that was a very factual (in the sense it explained where the fiction came from) part.

Next, some mixed media video installations. A "peephole" vampires' kiss montage, a vampire home with descriptive video, and a large multi-screen installation with a history of vampire movies.

Then, an exhibit on vampire costumes. This had an original Francis Ford Coppola Dracula armor set, and a pretty good video on the costume design of the movie with a lot of direct commentary from the designer herself, Eiko Ishioka.



This was followed by costumes for female "vamps" from theater, opera, and screen. There was also an odd exhibit of comic panels by a famous Italian comic artist that he had done for his own private collection of one of his famous heroines meeting Dracula.

I liked the exhibit overall, but I had expected more of a straight contemporary art show... After we walked around the castle.



We headed in toward the Duomo, and had a little shopping and light dinner at La Rinascente. Cioccolati Italiani for dessert!