I Santillana

The “I Santillana” exhibition explores the world of Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana, siblings and descendants of a legendary glassmaking dynasty, through their father, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, and their grandfather, Paolo Venini. The exhibition brings together approximately 170 works including sculptures, artworks and glassware selected from a period of more than two years of meetings and conversations between Martin Bethenod and the Santillana siblings. The works on display investigate the diverse yet intertwined dialectic of the two artists, each following an autonomous artistic path but both relying on a common family heritage and biography. The exhibition is organised around a central axis representing their shared memory. The gallery space of LE STANZE DEL VETRO has been especially adapted in order to enable a comparison and an ongoing dialogue between the two artists& works.

The central corridor will serve as a meeting point between the worlds of Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana and create a cross-play of connections and references but also of disagreements, though never forced nor far-fetched but rather revealing of the formal similarities, the peculiarities and differences between the artistic works and creative processes of Laura and Alessandro. Divided into eight rooms – which make up LE STANZE DEL VETRO, the “I Santillana” exhibition features sculptures and glass works by the two artists ranging from the Eighties to the present, along with a body of new works specially designed and manufactured for this show.

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