Curated by Antonio Aimi and Antonio Guarnotta

At the MIC in Faenza, the exhibition "Aztecs, Maya, Inca and the cultures of ancient America" presents about three hundred artefacts (terracotta and fabrics) from the MIC collection in Faenza together with other works (gilded thrusters, sculptures, stelae, etc. ) from the most important Italian anthropology museums and from two private collections.

The exhibition offers a new and updated synthesis on the most important cultures of ancient America and at the same time presents some of the most interesting themes that have emerged from the most recent research: the conquest of America seen from the side of the vanquished, the condition of women, of calculus of ancient Peru and pre-Columbian art presented as art and not just as archeology.

The MIC of Faenza has one of the most interesting Italian collections of pre-Columbian art, consisting of almost 900 exhibits. The first important nucleus dates back to the pre-war period. The collection was then enriched after the war, thanks to donations from museums and institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Arqueología y Historia of Mexico City, The University Museum of Philadelphia, Museo Nacionál de Antropología y Arqueología of Lima, Museo Nacionál of San José and it has grown to this day thanks to numerous private donations, some even recent.

"Even if for some time in Europe and the United States the ethno-anthropological exhibitions often tend to focus on a single culture - underline the curators Antonio Aimi and Antonio Guarnotta - in this exhibition it seemed appropriate to us to present all the most important cultures of Mesoamerica and the Peruvian Area to offer the visitor both a synthesis of the pan-American traits common to the two most important regions of ancient America, and the most interesting specialized and monothematic insights, which are the result of research conducted in recent years. In this way, moreover, we also give the opportunity to take stock of the societies that dazzled Europeans at the time of the Conquest, which were at the origin of the reflections of European intellectuals on the 'other', and which, one could say, have always been they are in our imagination; that of the Aztecs, that of the Maya and that of the Incas ”.

The exhibition itinerary presents exhibits and sections that allow both to have an overall view of the cultures of Mesoamerica and the Peruvian Area and to address issues of great novelty that are usually not dealt with in exhibitions: the condition of women , calculation systems and , "Although it may appear" not new ", - explain the curators - pre-Columbian art presented precisely as art and not just as archeology".

The exhibition is enriched with some finds, even of the highest level and in some cases unique in the world, coming from the collections of the MDS (Museum of the Looks) of Rimini , of the MNAE (National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology) of Florence , of the MUCIV (Museum delle Civiltà) of Rome and the MUDEC of Milan , together with loans from some private collectors.