Inauguration Saturday, February 12 at 6pm
"The Spirit of the House"


Open:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
9.00—13.00 14.00—18.00
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
14.00—20.00
or by appointment
Monday closed






With "The Spirit of the House" Laura Santamaria brings to completion a project begun in 2002. The work is made up of projected images - details of the artist's house and landscapes seen from its windows - superimposed on the white walls and the frescoed areas of the former church. The projectors are set on books chosen from the artist's bookcase. The installation is integrated with an audio accompaniment consisting in a selection of music and radio transmission of popular songs (taped in collaboration with Fabio Giampietro) alternating with the silence of the space. If, on the one hand, the images of objects and corners of her home projected in the niches or superimposed on the traces of frescoes appear out of context, on the other, they mesh with the figurative representations on the wall. A play of transparency is created which is reinforced by the sun's reflections penetrating the space. The video images, made with Andrea Cerini, are like flitting scraps of memory or enigmatic flashes. Together with the music they create an interaction of atmosphere and perception where time seems suspended between ephemeral daily life and the persistence of the evocations. The spectator dwells in the show's space-time dimension in the spirit of the "house" as a breeding ground for memories; an archive of impressions.

Laura Santamaria was born in 1976 in Monza, she lives in Milan. She received her degree from the Brera Academy, Milan majoring in painting (2000).
In 2002 she took part in the Antonio Ratti Foundation Advanced Course in Visual Arts held by Giulio Paolini (catalog).
In 2003 she participated in the "Installation-Object-Composition-Situation" Workshop held by Guillaume Bijl at the International Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzsburg
and in 2004 at the "Media in Flux" Workshop with Geoffrey Hendricks held at the same institute in Austria.

One person shows:
Installations in nature (since 1998);
Porporacorporale, Binario 0, Milan (1998);
White Circle, Great Hall, Loughborough University,
Loughborough Great Britain (1999);
Camera obscura, Library of the Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst, Salzburg Austria (2003).

Group shows (selection):
Salon I, Museo della Permanente, Milan (1999, catalog);
Menotrenta, Premio Città di Savigliano-Gianni Delzanno,
Museo Civico A. Olmo, Savigliano (Cn) (2001, catalog);
Visual-e, multimedia project, Milan (2002); Via Libera,
End-of-Course Student Exhibition, Antonio Ratti
Foundation, Ex church of San Francesco, Como (2002);
Citydancefloor, multimedia project, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2002);
Tracce di un seminario, Galleria Viafarini, Milan (2003);
Sguardi altrove, Loggia dei mercanti, Milan (2003);
Re: Invito#1, Sala dell'Annunziata, Imola (BO) (2004, catalog);
Achtung! Galerie im Alcatraz, Hallein Austria (2004),
Sommerakademie Final Exhibition, Guillaume Bijl's Class,
Salzburg Austria (2003, 2004);
Premio Biennale d'Arte Donato Frisia, Villa Confalonieri,
Merate (LC) (2002, 2004, catalog).