The exhibition, presented on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of MUSEC, is housed in the three rooms on the ground floor of the Heleneum and presents the history of the Museum and the building that houses it, focusing on three emblematic figures who in different ways have shaped the soul of the Museum. The guiding thread of the exhibition thus consists of: the worldview of Hélène Margarethe Bieber (the search for the genius loci), who had the Heleneum built in the 1930s; that of the great scholar of religious culture Elémire Zolla (the refuge of the spirit), who directed the Istituto Ticinese di Alti Studi in the 1970s; and that of Serge Brignoni (the secret affinities), whose collection of ethnic art forms the Museum’s founding core. These visions are compared with the works on display on the first and second floors of the Heleneum. The new visitor route, created over a period of two years by the MUSEC staff, is also characterised by the possibility of a direct approach to the work of art, by several levels of interpretation and by the coexistence of four different visitor routes: the journey to the South Seas, the ‘ethnos’, the anthropological themes, and the analysis of styles. This allows the observer to structure the visit according to his or her interests and available time, thus freely deciding to delve into one or the other aspect of the work.