The project San Carlo is born in Cremona from the desire to create an open dialogue between contemporary art, the territory and the local community.
The project is meant to serve as an opportunity for the exchange, research, promotion and exhibition of contemporary artists, established on the national and international art scene, with the aim of implementing activities dedicated to art.
The project has been launched to promote contemporary art, understood as a language to investigate changes in society; as a tool of dialogue and a means to stimulate the participation of different types of public and activate environments conducive to innovation and change. The deconsecrated church of San Carlo, a site in the historical memory of the city and of the community, for many years abandoned, looted and eventually closed to the public, reopens to host the project San Carlo Cremona.
MASSIMO BARTOLINI, 100 Giorni
Now on view until February the 15th
Bartolini presents an installation where light shifts between absence and revelation.
An unlit Sicilian luminaria and a red neon drawn from prison inscriptions suspend the space between celebration and confinement.
MARCELLO MALOBERTI, Metronotte
17/07/2025 - 18/07/2025
Marcello Maloberti presents the word “DIO” laid on the floor of the nave.
The fragile, battery-powered light is continuously surveilled by two night guards, turning the sacred term into an unstable presence suspended between belief, technology, and control.
PAOLA PIVI, A helicopter upside down
01/03/2025 - 29/06/2025
Paola Pivi presents an Agusta 109 helicopter, flipped upside down and placed on the floor of the central nave of the church San Carlo. This positioning transforms an object known for its functionality and association with movement into an unexpected and disorienting presence.
MONICA BONVICINI, And Rose
05/10/2024 - 12/01/2025
With imposing sculptures from the series “Chainswings” dominating the nave, Bonvicini continues her incisive exploration of the dynamics of power inherent in architectural spaces, bringing her investigation to new levels of complexity and resonance.
JONAS MEKAS, Requiem
23/02 - 14/07/2024
The artwork Requiem, commissioned by and presented at The Shed, New York City, is a meditative tribute to Verdi’s score for Messa da Requiem, or Catholic funeral Mass, and a reflection on the beauty of the natural world.
JESSI REAVES, Above the cold
06/10 - 31/12/2023
The sculptures in this exhibition are displayed on and around a large scaffolded structure. A crude facsimile of a modern house, dividing the space of the church into distinctive areas, those accessible and inaccessible.
OLIVIER MOSSET, San Carlo PG
27/05 - 15/09/2023
A monumental yellow painting titled “San Carlo PG” is presented, filling the floor of the 17th- century deconsecrated church of San Carlo. The site specific work measuring over five by twenty meters stretches to the nave’s edges as if wishing to expand beyond them.
ARTHUR SIMMS, I Am The Bush Doctor, One Halo.
18/02 - 09/05/2023
Invited to create an installation for San Carlo Cremona, Simms exhibits sculptures and drawings inspired by the 17th century church. Several of the works are created specifically for the site. Historically, Simms’s work has dealt with the spiritual, scale, light and reflection.
ROBERT JANITZ, Carmina Burrata
24/09/2022 - 10/01/2023
Robert Janitz grounds his installation on a question that he keeps asking himself: what is the standard exhibition space called the “white cube” and what does it do to its content? Is it a neutral space? A commercial space? Or can it also be a sacred space?
DARA FRIEDMAN, The Tiger's Tail
11/06 - 09/09/2022
The installation presents as its main theme the “vesica piscis”. The symbol revealed itself during the course of creating the exhibition in both the video projection “Mandorla” and the floor drawing in chalk pastels, “The Tiger’s Tail”. This form found its way into the work.
MARK HANDFORTH, White-Light-Whirlwind
18/03 - 31/05/2022
White-Light-Whirlwind is a monumental drawing with light. Balanced precariously on a single point, the sculpture rises, twists and expands 16 meters high into the baroque dome of San Carlo church. Standing yet floating, balanced yet hanging, the sculpture shifts perceptively between an unreal vision and its massive chandelier-like reality.
SERVANE MARY, Glitches
15/09/2021 - 18/02/2022
The exhibition features a new body of work which has been created specifically for the church, responding to its architecture and volume. The presentation of three paintings, monumental in scale, 16 x 16 feet (5 meters x 5 meters), is specific to the site.
SAN CARLO is a contemporary art exhibition space made possible by the commitment of Lorenzo Spinelli. The space is a place for research, creation, and sharing.
