Vampire inspirations

“Dracula and the myth of vampires” is the title dedicated to this unusual exhibition at the Triennale in Milan (up until the end of March) organised by the Alef-cultural project management in collaboration with the Kunsthistoriches Musem in Viena. 

Almost 100 exhibits, amongst them paintings, engravings, drawings, documents, historical objects, costumes and videos, will be on show to explore the figure of the vampire par excellence, starting from an historical prospective and then moving onto a literary transfiguration, in order to arrive at a cinematographic transfiguration, and then to conclude with the sociological implications of the Dracula myth.  The journey explores the objects exhibited and the associated designs in occasion of the anniversary of the death of Bram Stoker, the author that published the first Dracula romance in 1897. The costume historian Giulia Mafai offers an original interpretation on the identity of the vampire, and in particular, that of the vampire woman.  Splendid costumes give an insight into the image of the ‘vampire woman’, historically immortalised by Elizabeth Bathory and the novel  ‘Carmilla’ – overlapping themes on the seductive powers of women. The history of costume provides an insight on “Vampire designs” through a description of the types of habitation and the places that the king of the night frequented, with a reflection on the role of Dracula as “city constructor” signed by the architect Italo Rota.  The figure of the vampire, going back in time to traditional folklores and the medieval period, experienced an incredible interest and development in the Enlightenment, Romantic and contemporary cultures culminating in the film Twilight in a type of vampire mania that continues to seduce not only adolescents.