The opening of a new venue at the LAC has given the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana the chance to exhibit its own permanent collection continuously. Being able to present both the collection and the exhibitions simultaneously means having the opportunity to show the binding relationship between the museum’s artistic holdings and the various temporary exhibitions. The works are exhibited annually on a rotating basis, and their scenography is intended to diversify the approach to interpretation each time, so that since the 19th century, the methods of displaying and classifying art collections have been subject to constant change, proof of how the viewing and interpretation of a work are unequivocally influenced by cultural and historical factors. 
 

From coloured walls completely covered by “painting galleries”, to a chronological arrangement by Schools and Movements, to room after room of rigorously monographic criteria, the methods used are neither definitve nor irreversible. The system most frequently used today is chronological, but art history has not evolved in a linear fashion, and it can be hard, with an installation of these kinds, to capture all the subtle traces.

The play of cross-references and consonances seems more interesting and stimulating, paving the way for new, original ways of interpretation. New Consonances proposes placing the works of artists who are distant from each other in time and in character side by side, fostering an exchange of language that is only irreconcilable on the surface. Iconographic themes create an exhibition route that offers an aesthetic experience in which the viewer becomes an interactive part of the interpretation process.