Hospitalia, Elena Franco's photography project at Santa Maria della Scala

Santa Maria della Scala in Siena is hosting from April 12 to July 7, 2019 the exhibition Hospitalia. Or on the Meaning of Care. This is a photographic project, presenting the architecture of ancient European hospitals, which was initiated several years ago. The photographic shots will document historic hospital buildings in an itinerary from Siena through Venice, Cremona, Milan, Alexandria, Vercelli, Turin, Arles, Bourg-en-Bresse, Lyon, Paris, to Lessines in Belgium: an itinerary that does not follow geography, but is subdivided by themes, such as monumentality-beauty, liturgy-ritual, limit-binding, memory-archive, community-solidarity, autarky-sustainability, landscape-environment, reuse-transformation.

Hospitals are for Elena Franco (Turin, 1973) witnesses to the fragility of our existence because they are places of illness and death. For the past seven years, Elena Franco has made this journey to encourage reflection on the reuse and networking of these structures, in Italy and abroad. Through her investigation, it is intended to uncover the stories of the men and communities who built and managed these fundamental social monuments.

The investigation resulted in a special project of The Journal of Architecture and the book Hospitalia. Or on the Meaning of Care (ARTEMA 2017), edited by Tiziana Bonomo with a foreword by journalist Domenico Quirico, as well as some local insights, as in the case of the volume The Rebirth of the Former Hospital of Sant’Andrea in Vercelli.

The exhibition is curated by Tiziana Bonomo.

For info: www.santamariadellascala.com

Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The exhibition is included in the museum entrance fee.

Image: Elena Franco, Hospitalia - View from Notre Dame of the Hotel Dieu, Paris.

Hospitalia, Elena Franco's photography project at Santa Maria della Scala

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