"RIVELAZIONI": THE SECOND EXHIBITION OF THE FUTURE MUSEUM

The second exhibition of the Museo Sant'Orsola is part of the restoration of the former Sant'Orsola convent. The convent is destined to become a vast cultural and artistic complex: a museum with a space for temporary exhibitions and cultural events, a school of art and design, a restaurant, a literary café, a wine library and craft workshops, including one dedicated to the artists in residence at the Museo Sant'Orsola.

The museum will officially open its doors in 2026, once the renovation work on the entire Sant'Orsola complex, owned by the Metropolitan City of Florence, has been completed. Since 2023, this work has been carried out by the Artea Group.

In 2020, French group Artea won the competition launched by the Metropolitan City of Florence for the renovation of the entire complex. It began managing the concession at the end of 2023 and will continue doing so for the next 50 years. The major redevelopment work carried out by Artea will begin at the end of 2024. Between 2021 and 2023, the city of Florence will be responsible for the restoration of the historic sections.

During the work, a series of exhibitions with a prefigurative dimension will be open to the public, announcing the particular orientations of this new Florentine cultural centre.

The Museo Sant'Orsola has invited visual artist Juliette Minchin and cartoonist Marta Roberti to take a unique look at this place steeped in history and create original works with a dreamlike quality, linked to elements in its past. They are taking the former convent into a new dimension, that of dreams.

Each of the two artists is taking over and transforming two separate spaces: Juliette Minchin is working in the former speziera (convent pharmacy) and in the 'outside' church. Marta Roberti, for her part, is taking over the 'inner' church and the underground passages beneath the former infirmary, which are being made accessible to the public for the first time.

Juliette Minchin's installations and wax sculptures create a second skin over and around certain parts of the building's architecture. She evokes the spectacular and fleeting Baroque past of the former convent, while Marta Roberti focuses on the nuns' private places (where they slept and meditated). As no tangible trace of these spaces remains, Marta Roberti imagined and transformed the 'inner' church into an immense monastic cell, covering its walls with paper 'frescoes' inspired by scenes once found in monasteries.
 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 

Juliette Minchin

A set design graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and the Beaux-Arts de Paris, Juliette Minchin works in sculpture, installation and drawing. A sculptor of the passing of time, her work explores the transformation of materials and cyclical temporalities. Her work is organic, with wax playing a central role.

In 2023, Juliette Minchin presented a monumental installation entitled La Croix, Veillée aux Épines at the heart of Beaulieu-en-Rouergue Abbey, organised by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux.

Marta Roberti

Marta Roberti has a degree in philosophy from the University of Verona and a diploma in film and video from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Through representations of women and animals, self-portraits and fragments of virgin landscapes, she explores the relationship between East and West and their myths.

In 2023, she collaborated with the House of Dior. During Haute Couture Week in July, she created large-scale decorative compositions for the Autumn/Winter 2023-2024 fashion show, which took place in the gardens of the Rodin Museum.
 

THE MUSEO SANT'ORLOSA: A MUSEUM UNDER CONSTRUCTION

One of the main aspirations of the Museo Sant'Orsola is to help reveal the site’s past through contemporary artistic expression.

The museum has taken on a twofold mission: enhance the tangible and intangible heritage of the former convent and create a new heritage that is relevant to our times and the issues we face.

A permanent exhibition will present evidence from the past and the present in a fruitful dialogue, to help us better understand and build for the future.

The museum will be managed by the Artea Foundation, a corporate endeavour set up by French group Artea. The foundation supports the work of contemporary artists by awarding them specific commissions and set up an artistic residency programme in summer 2022, aimed at emerging talent.
 

THE FORMER SANT'ORSOLA CONVENT

A place steeped in history, Sant'Orsola has undergone a number of transformations and was inaccessible for over 40 years. Originally a Benedictine convent in the early 14th century, in 1435 it became a Franciscan convent. The tomb of Lisa Gherardini has been there since 1542. Identified as the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci, she is the most famous face in the entire history of art! In 1797, General Bonaparte took possession of the convent and relocated the nuns. With an edict in 1810, he definitively put an end to its function as a convent and the dispersal of Sant'Orsola's artistic heritage began...

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