fbpx
Skip to content

What is Wunderkammern?

Wunderkammern, the urban art gallery in Rome and Milan

Why the name Wunderkammern? It means rooms of wonders. It is a German word made up of wunder = wonder and kammern = rooms. The Wunderkammern were the first forms of museum in the Renaissance period and contained unique and precious objects of all sorts. The name underlines how this gallery is a container of surprising works and projects.

The extraordinary invasion of Rome.

In 2010 aerospace engineer Giuseppe Ottavianelli, founder, had the intuition to bring his beloved “space” to Rome with the exhibition of the artist Invader, then still unknown. Invader, riding a scooter in the Roman roads, invades … What does the invasion consist of, you may ask? The artist Invader had already started the project in 1998, which would become world-wide, by placing his mosaics inspired by the Space Invaders video game on the walls of cities such as London, Paris and Los Angeles … And so it was that he “invaded” even the most characteristic corners of Rome. Invader’s works are made of colored tiles that compose the mosaics, creating the iconic Invader tile. With its unique style, today the mosaics he creates are famous everywhere and his highly sought-after works, making him one of the 5 most important artists globally in the field of Urban Art.

From that moment, the gallery’s activities in two decades of activity, lead to tangible results:

  • 150 events with international artists
  • Museum exhibitions with the most important urban artists in the world
  • Thousands of visitors introduced to the world of Street Art
  • 2 galleries in Italy

In 2016 in the historic district of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, Wunderkammern opens the doors of its new headquarters, immediately kicking off a rich artistic calendar with the exhibitions of many Italian and international artists, including JonOne and Blek le Rat.

Do you know who Blek le Rat is?

He is the first stencil artist in the world. In fact, the now-famous Banksy says:
“Every time I paint something, I find out that Blek le Rat had already done it twenty years ago.” – Banksy

Le Rat, in French means “the rat”.
The rodent has become the symbol of his artistic production because it is precisely with the reproduction of his rats in the streets of Paris that the artist has conquered the Ville Lumière since 1981.
Blek’s exhibition in Milan had an exceptional outcry on all media, and important events followed in the following years.

Shepard Fairey in Moscow

Among the most sensational exhibitions we find “Shepard Fairey: Force Majeure” curated by Wunderkammern at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Moscow in Russia. The retrospective exhibition of the work of the famous American artist, known for the OBEY campaign and for the portrait of Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign, with over 400 works represented a tribute to Russian constructivism, from which Shepard Fairey was inspired both in technique and in the contents of most of his production.

We hope we have intrigued you and that you will follow us to discover the world of Street Art and our artists in the next post!