Exhibitions

A graduate of the National School of Decorative Arts in Scenography and the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, Juliette Minchin is a visual artist fascinated by light, time and the changing states of the materials she works with. Juliette Minchin’s favourite material is wax, which she uses in her often ephemeral sculptures, drawings and installations, exploring notions of transformation, disappearance and rebirth.

The artworks for the exhibition Rivelazioni (28^th June – 27^th October 2024)

For the former convent of Sant’Orsola Juliette Minchin has designed an installation that unfolds around the remains of the first church.
Her drapes and veils of wax envelop the architecture : the back of the room and the windows come to life, as if breathed through by a new breath of life. In her own way, the artist seems to be resuscitating the convent’s theatrical and fleeting Baroque past, of which there has been no trace since the 19^th century.

In the convent’s former pharmacy on the other hand, the artist staged her vigil with roots. Around the room’s imposing pillars, Juliette Minchin has hung panels covered in wax and wicks that are lit and melt every day, offering visitors the spectacle of silent, ever-changing creativity. The shapes, light and scent of burning wax offer visitors a spellbinding sensory experience, a reference to the liturgical and healing rituals once practiced in this place.

With a degree in Philosophy from the University of Verona and a diploma in Film and Video at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, Marta Roberti is first and foremost a drawer. She makes drawings, often largescale, on special papers (carbon paper, Gampi paper) that she assembles, cuts out, and reassembles to create her compositions. Her art establishes a dialogue between East and West and is a constant research about what man considers other than himself : nature, animals, women.

The artworks for the exhibition Rivelazioni (28^th June – 27^th October 2024)

Inspired by the stories of saints that circulated within the convents walls, Marta Roberti conceived Aure : a series of immense and delicate drawings that cover the church of Sant’Orsola and seem to emerge from the surface of the walls like fragments of rediscovered frescoes. Her works overturn traditional religious iconography and explore the relationship between the divine, the feminine and the animal. The artist transforms the former ecclesiastical hall into a place of contemplation and personal meditation, offering us her imagined version of a monastic cell. The viewer is invited to explore different worlds in which there are no longer any boundaries or distinctions between living beings.

Marta Roberti’s reflections continue in the semi-darkness of the basement, where a selection of works on graphite paper are suspended and backlit (sometimes animated by projected stop-motion drawings). They appear as luminous epiphanies, secrets that are gradually revealed.

Sophia Kisielewska-Dunbar (born in 1990) is an artist and an art historian based in London. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2013 and worked for several years as a researcher for Day & Faber, a London-based fine art dealer specialising in European drawings. Her artistic practice combines a plurality of techniques from painting to embroidery, soft sculpture, drawing and performance. Her works often aim to open a dialogue between past and present and one of her principal focuses is the representation of women in Western art. Sophia has participated in numerous fairs and group shows in London and abroad. In Spring 2024 she will present her first solo show in Paris.

The first artist in residence at Sant’Orsola

From June 15 to September 15 – 2022, Sophia worked as the first artist in residence for the future Sant’Orsola Museum in Florence.

In Florence, Sophia worked in two ateliers outside the walls of Sant’Orsola: firstly in the Spazio Schola of the Accademia Italiana; then, thanks to a cultural partnership, she moved to the Porta Romana artistic high school.

Her work started with the research and study of the fragmentary heritage of Sant’Orsola. Sophia tried to immerse herself in the visual culture of a nunnery. Then, she carried out a period of pictorial experimentation which led her to the conception of two artistic projects. These projects, one monumental, Noli me Tangere, and one in miniature, Rewriting Sant’Orsola, will be purchased by the Museum to form the first nucleus of its contemporary art collection.

Alberto Ruce (born in 1988) is a Sicilian artist living in Marseille. His self-taught artistic path began with graffiti. In 2009 he moved to Paris where he took courses in drawing, painting and perspective at the Atelier des Beaux-Arts, getting closer and closer to figurative art.
In 2012 he took part in the group show GRAFF in Luxembourg ; four years later he organized his first solo exhibition 4’33’’ at Gadam Gallery in Messina. Since then he has joined numerous exhibitions and festivals in both Italy and France. Next summer he will display Transumanze, a research project on micro-migrations started in 2019 together with videomaker Carla Costanza, in San Marco D’Alunzio and Palermo.

His art remains linked to muralism. His murals, painted tone on tone with shades of gray and white, come to life between the cracks in the walls as dreamlike apparitions. His murals can be seen in various European cities such as Paris, Marseille, Brignoles, Messina, Palermo, Mostar, Athens and, today, also in Florence.

From March to May 2023, Alberto Ruce was involved in the project Ephemeral Museum; his works are ‘ephemeral’ in that they could be transformed or even erased by future renovations of the former convent of Sant’Orsola.