On Saturday, March 10th, the fascinating museum complex of the Chiostri di Sant’Eustorgio welcomes the site-specific installation To Breathe / Respirare by acclaimed Korean artist Kimsooja. It’s part of an organic project that aims to display contemporary art inside one of Milano’s oldest basilicas, built in the 4th century.
The Portinari Chapel is a square space surmounted by a spectacular lantern-shaped dome and was designed as an independent space in the second half of the 15th century. The frescoes are by Vincenzo Foppa and include paintings made of polychrome slivers that allude to divine light and, probably, also Heaven. The Solarian Chapels date back to the second half of the 15th century, and in the chapel on the left side (facing the Portinari Chapel) there are frescoes by Daniele Crespi (executed 1620-21). One of the more striking is his Saint Paul Taken to Third Heaven by the Angels, which shows the saint wrapped in the veils of the Evangelists. At the far left of the fresco there is a sort of supernatural light as well as light from the “third heaven”, which, as Dante wrote in the Divine Comedy and dedicated to “spiritual lovers”, still retain something of human inclinations, and also physically the shadow cast by the Earth when lit by the sun.
Installation views
