Opened a few months ago, the Museo della Merda (Manure Museum) of Castelbosco (PC) is a peculiar project that combines art and technology, disrupting cultural norms and preconceived notions. Castelbosco, the agricultural firm of Gianantonio Locatelli, produces milk for Grana Padano cheese, with 2500 cows that produce 30,000 kilos of milk per day, and 100,000 kilos of manure.
A quantity of excrement Gianantonio Locatelli has transformed into an avant-garde industrial-ecological project: today the material is used to produce methane gas, fertilizer, and raw material for stucco and bricks.
The idea of reuse has always been an intrinsic part of agriculture, and in this case the manure becomes something else, producing innovation; it becomes a ‘precious’ material on which to build information and cultural entertainment as well.
A new idea for a museum, in which scientific research, technology, art and production blend to stimulate interest on various levels: Castelbosco becomes an intriguing place for all those who are interested in food production, history, art or ecological issues.
The museum visit starts from the outside, in the agricultural facility, where to increase the impact of the project internationally acclaimed artists like David Tremlett and Anne & Patrick Poirier provide works to prompt reflection and amplify the conceptual, metaphoric and productive vision that forms the basis of Castelbosco.
The Manure Museum, in short, is an institute of research and gathering of facts, documents and information on excrement in culture, technology, science and history.
Text by Olivia Cremascoli
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