MiM Belluno - Interactive Museum of Migrations

MiM Belluno - Museo interattivo delle Migrazioni

AN OPEN - MINDED AND INTERACTIVE MUSEUM

The MiM Museum is placed in the seat of the Association Bellunesi nel Mondo; since many years  the association is an active place, which is a point of reference for the emigrants and ex emigrants and nowadays it is also for people from other countries. The MiM Museum was born from the experiences of the emigrants,  who are the protagonists and the heart of the museum as show the video-interviews. This is a travel which start from the experiences of the people, to catch the universality of the feelings and conditions which are common to all the migrants all over the world and all ages. It is the first step of a project that would be open-minded and interactive: with the schools, through the offer of meeting and educational activities; with the territory, because the MiM Museum is the starting point of an emigration’s itinerary in the Province of Belluno; with the network offering online exhibitions and events, thanks to the Net the MiM museum can be extended outside its boarders.

The main hall

Migration: a human condition

Why people emigrate? How and when people emigrate? How many people are emigrated, in the past and nowadays? A special part inside this hall is dedicated to Italy, the protagonist of the biggest exodus in the modern history; from 1876 to 1976, 24 milion of people are emigrated.  Emigration is a characteristic of the italian history, still know nowadays because of the emigration of the youngs “brains” looking for a job. Moreover Italy is, in the ancient time and now, a land of immigration; from the Serenissima Republic of Venice, the multiethnic capital of the Mediterranenan Sea, to the country of today, in which from 1991 to 2015, the citizen who come from other countries are increased from 356.199 to 5.014.437!

Lower hall

Bellunesi around the world

This part of the museum starts with the witnesses of “temporary” emigration, typical of the life of the people of the valleis: seasonal workers with fixed-term contracts, who went in the Centre Europe. There is also a corner dedicated to women and children. At the end of the Nineteenth Century starts the “permanent” emigration, to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. During a century people from Belluno take up residence in many European countries –  especially in Switzerland – in Americas, in Australia, in South Africa and Middle East. It ends with the “retourn”: it is a moment which requires a lot of solidarity. This solidarity had created the Clubs of the Ex- Emigrants in Belluno.

The old museum

Ice-cream and mines

The ice-cream has origin from Zoldo and Cadore, thanks to the peddler artisans of sweets, who had make well-know ice-cream in Central and North Europe; at the beginning they sold ice-cream in the streets and squares and then they created  prestigious ice-cream parlours in Austria, Holland, but most of all Germany. The life in the mines – in the galleries, tunnels and hydroeletric galleries of the great works in the Alps – this kind of job had involved generations of italian. After the Second World War, the job of the miner is required, because of the trade bilateral agreement Italy- Belgium in 1964, with mass departures of our miners. Some of these experiences are narrated in the interviews in the museum.

---

---

---

---