Infinito Cabinet. Maria Cristina Crespo

Presented as a contemporary Wunderkammer, “Infinito Cabinet. Between André Malraux’s Imaginary Museum and Jorge Luis Borges’s Unfathomable Cosmic Library” is an exhibition-installation by Maria Cristina Crespo, curated by Giusy Caroppo and promoted by Eclettica Cultura dell’Arte. Composed of multi-material works, the project aligns with the 61st International Art Exhibition’s theme, “In Minor Keys”, by offering a reflection on Western culture through the lenses of literature, art, myth, religion, and philosophy.

The installation functions as an iconographic theatre where diverse genres and eras interact. References include the cult of Mithras, Ovid, Dante, and Pasolini, alongside medieval Rome, Baroque Mexico, and the Mediterranean. A micro-narration of history is expressed through anthropomorphic vases, pictorial backdrops, and grotesque-style dresses made from recycled fabric.

Crespo’s work addresses the contemporary debate on Cancel Culture by countering it with a non-ideological perspective that asserts the complexity of Western identity as a resource. Developed from the late 1970s to the present, this research highlights Venice as an emblematic city of cultural contamination and a landscape of world memory, positioned between the finite and the infinite.