A Female Saint Francis

Description

Since 2024, the Museo Hermann Hesse Montagnola has a workshop open to artists from the region, where they can explore and reinterpret the life and work of Hermann Hesse. The third guest of the Hesse Artist in Residence program is Giulia Santambrogio (* 1996), who, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, confronted this figure to which Hermann Hesse dedicated in 1904 the brief monograph "Franz von Assisi." The artist's works evoke another text by the writer, "Aus der Kindheit des heiligen Franz von Assisi" (1919), where chivalrous and peaceful sobriety dreams recall the concern that precedes the saint's true vocation. The artist develops the image of a "Female Saint Francis": a poetic and radical figure that unites spirituality and inner transformation. From the confrontation with Hermann Hesse's thought, a work emerges that intertwines literary, mystical, and bodily elements, exploring female self-determination and inner processes. Santambrogio's work reflects on silence, resistance, and transformation, and ideally dialogues with the graffiti of Saint Francis on the Antica Casa Gamboni in Gentilino, a few steps from the exhibition, which testifies to the rootedness of this figure on the Collina d'Oro. Dates and times - The exhibition is visible on September 19 – 20 and 26 – 27, 2026, from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm, in the former Artebianca bakery, via Berenice 2, in the heart of the village of Gentilino - Opening: Friday, September 18, 2026, at 6:00 pm. Exhibition curated by Marcel Henry & Giacomo Agosti. Entry