Sienese Museums Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary with a rap, to speak to young people

After al Museo, the rap dedicated to Siena’s museums created by the Fondazione Musei Senesi on the occasion of its first twenty years of activity, is born. Five very young people with different ages and experiences; a professional rapper, used to working with young people; forty-five museums to be told with an unprecedented language: these are the ingredients in the new project that intends to open a new channel of communication with the youngest audience, through a contemporary language that until now has never been used to talk about museums and that young people themselves use to return their experiences with immediacy. Sienese-born rapper Zatarra, who is used to working with young people and students, immediately embraced the idea with enthusiasm, working with a special crew for weeks and creating unreleased lyrics and music.

The rap winds between Cetona and Poggibonsi, looks at the works of Montepulciano and Monticchiello, glides over the Museo del Paesaggio to the Stanze della Memoria, and beyond. In the video clip, made by Senio Firmati directing and filming, with editing by Bruno Malevoli, the protagonists rap among the works of art and invite their peers to abandon TikTok and Netflix to discover the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of the area.

“For the instrumental part, we did a couple of circle-time meetings and focus on sounds, rhythm and style to use,” Zatarra recounted. “We started with a simple keyboard riff from the idea of stairs, often found in museums, up and down, and for the subgenre we chose funky to make everything more ’rubbery and fluid.’ Hence the provocation of recommending an ’After at the Museum’ to those who never attend it and those who do, but only according to narrow and formal canons, far from the imagination of the under-30 generation. I composed the bass line and called a student to play the guitar parts; Spokewheel had, then, the merit of characterizing and lightening the refrain, inserting the melodic line with the flute.”

The lyrics, too, came out of the discussion between Zatarra and the boys, working first on the choice of key words to which to find rhymes and assonances, then in the transition to written bars. Finally, the experience at Gorilla Punch Studio for the recording, editing and mix sessions, with Damiano Magliozzi directing.

“This is an absolutely innovative project,” commented Elisa Bruttini, director of Fondazione Musei Senesi, “since museums have rarely been the focus of a piece of music, much less a rap. We like to imagine it as a story from the side of young people and an open invitation to multiply the interpretations, including emotional ones, that museums can activate. An inversion from traditional communication plans: here it is the adult generations, who are less familiar with this musical genre and its code, who have to unhinge their prejudices and let themselves be guided by the boys and girls ... and hum the refrain, of course!”

The official presentation of ’After at the Museum’ will be held on May 30 at 5 p.m. in the Aula Magna of the Museum of Natural History of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici. The meeting will open with a session of rhythmic-musical rap workshop and more with Zatarra; it will be followed by the premiere of the music video clip, which will then be distributed on the channels of Fondazione Musei Senesi. The project is part of Amico Museo and the 20-year celebrations of Fondazione Musei Senesi, sponsored by ICOM Italy. Admission to the event is free.

Sienese Museums Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary with a rap, to speak to young people

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