Ferruccio Ascari's Silent Journey Through Milan's Sacred Spaces

Ferruccio Ascari (b. 1949), a Milan-based artist known for cross-disciplinary projects blending visual arts, music, dance, and performance since the 1970s, presents a site-specific exhibition titled 'Silenzio' across three Milanese churches. The show, curated by Daniela Cristadoro and Matilde Scaramellini, begins at the Chiostro piccolo di San Simpliciano with 'Luogo presunto', a wire and gauze installation described as a monument to precariousness and dreams. The second stop is the semi-hidden church of San Raffaele, featuring three works: 'Silenzio', a minimal shroud with gold embroidery suspended over the nave; 'Amen', a triptych combining Eastern iconostasis, 13th-century fresco, and Byzantine art; and 'Logos', a gold egg placed in the ciborium referencing Piero della Francesca. The journey culminates at the Santuario di San Bernardino alle Ossa, where three perforated ex-votos and the video 'Rumore'—showing an enigmatic barefoot figure traversing the three locations before dissolving—are displayed in the ossuary vestibule. Ascari also invented 'arteyoga', a practice fusing yoga meditation with creative expression. The exhibition explores silence, syncretism, and the intersection of sacred and contemporary art.