A vertical journey into the submerged territories of imagination, from Earth to psyche.

Not all journeys lead elsewhere. Some – the most radical ones – take us below: into the Earth’s crust, into the fissures of the soul, into places where light does not reach and time feels suspended. This is the point of departure for Travelogue. Underground and Undersea, the third issue of MU – MUDEC United, unveiled on June 12 in the dreamlike setting of the former Public Baths of Piscina Cozzi in Milan.

After exploring the symbolic worlds of the rainbow and the shop window – emblems of surface, reflection, and visibility – MU shifts the axis of inquiry downward, embracing a contemporary catabasis that abandons well-worn routes to delve into the invisible, the compressed, the hidden.

Travelogue becomes a poetic and polyphonic map of submerged landscapes, traced by voices that refuse the dominant narrative of travel-as-consumption. It is an invitation to decelerate, to unlearn the surface, and to dwell within the void—where air thins and the imagination expands.

The magazine moves fluidly through art, cinema, botany, poetry, music, and architecture, proposing a layered vision of the journey: no longer a gesture of conquest or escape, but a practice of immersion and attunement.

Amplifying this shift is a special sixteen-page insert from the 1995 issue of COLORS, dedicated to the theme of overtourism—reminding us of the urgent need to imagine new paths for inhabiting the world.

As Marina Pugliese, director of MUDEC, writes, “this issue literally sinks into the underground and the abyss, in a sort of psychoanalytic deep dive.”

A descent not only geographic, but symbolic—into caves, mines, ruins, tunnels, into buried emotions, silent archives, and unscripted forms of knowledge.

The publication features an exceptional cast of contributors, including Armin Linke, Adrian Paci, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Andrea Lissoni, Emanuele Coccia, Luca Guadagnino, Michelangelo Frammartino, Joan Jonas, Mariangela Gualtieri, and Nico Vascellari & Michèle Lamy (Lavascar), among many others. Each piece opens a breach in the visible world—a portal to submerged geographies and alternative cosmologies.

The launch event unfolded as a sensorial dialogue between Marina Pugliese and cardiologist Giulio Stefanini, enhanced by a site-specific installation by the collective 6\:AM and the aquatic soundscapes of Marta Del Grandi. The evening was accompanied by a curated drink list courtesy of Select and Fiol Prosecco.

Published by Alla Carta Studio, with graphic design by studio FM, MU n.03 is far more than a magazine: it is an atlas of visions that attempts to read the present moment by tracing it from below—an exploration not of the stars, but of sediments, shadows, and silences.

In an age oversaturated with images, stories, and destinations, MUDEC turns toward emptiness.

And reminds us that discovery does not always require looking far away: sometimes, it begins by looking down.