Through a three-year program of artist residencies, the young cultural association Mares breathes new life into the former Santa Croce complex in Alessandria. From this process, four contemporary artists unveil memories, reflections, and renewed visions of the site’s layered history.
Contemporary art as a regenerative force returns to center stage with Mares, a young cultural association founded by curators Tatiana Palenzona and Amina Berdin, together with entrepreneur Michelangelo Buzzi. Their shared mission: to bring back to life the Monumental Complex of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo (Alessandria, Piedmont) through a three-year initiative titled RUINS. The trio has chosen an immersive, site-specific approach, tailoring the project to the history and identity of the former convent – later a boys’ reformatory – by launching an artist residency program open to both emerging and established artists, from Italy and beyond. No restrictions were placed on medium or method, encouraging a dialogue as open and layered as the site itself.
The results came together in a collective exhibition (September 20 – October 5, 2025) that unfolded across much of the monumental complex. Each site-specific work was born from months of research and hands-on engagement with the local context, weaving together the region’s stories, memories, and material traces. In this interview, Palenzona and Berdin discuss the vision behind Mares and the delicate balance of working within a place so steeped in history and emotion – one that remains a living landmark for the local community. RUINS stands as a powerful example of how contemporary art can converse with the past, spark the present, and open new horizons of hope for the future.
Can you tell us how the Mares association came to life and what vision inspired your idea of creating a new center for artistic and cultural production in the Alessandria area?
Tatiana: The idea of reactivating the Santa Croce Complex took shape in 2023. Amira and I already knew each other professionally, and when this opportunity came along, we embraced it with great enthusiasm. That same year, we carried out our first site visit to understand what could be done in such a vast and, at the time, largely inaccessible place – a site with enormous potential, especially for a contemporary art project.
The Complex has a deeply layered history: originally a Dominican convent commissioned by Pope Pius V, it experienced an early period of glory before being turned into a military depot, and later fell into decline until the twentieth century, when it became a juvenile reformatory. These contrasts are still tangible in its architecture and atmosphere.
We felt that establishing an artist residency would be the most meaningful way to bring the place back to life – reconnecting it with its original purpose. In fact, Pope Pius V himself had commissioned works from Giorgio Vasari and Ludovico degli Albani, turning Santa Croce into an important religious and artistic hub of its time
How does the project contribute to the revitalization of the Santa Croce Complex?
Amina: Since we took over the management of Santa Croce, we haven’t carried out any structural renovations, as it’s a highly complex site – a historic monument with several areas of significant artistic and architectural value. Any intervention therefore requires careful planning and considerable resources.
The complex itself is immense, covering almost 10,000 square meters. Within it, some areas have been fully restored, while others remain frozen in time, untouched since the 1940s, without access to water or electricity.
Tatiana: Our main goal is to take care of the spaces, ensuring their upkeep and preventing any further deterioration. Today, the Complex is owned by the Municipality and managed in collaboration with the volunteer association Amici di Santa Croce. It’s all still quite homegrown in spirit, but an active fundraising effort is already underway.
How important do you think it is to create new centers for artistic production and engagement outside major cities?
Tatiana: I’m originally from this area, while Amira isn’t, though we both live in Milan. We realized that, although major urban centers offer many opportunities for artists, they also leave little time and space for reflection – the markets are saturated. For this reason, we thought it would be a winning idea to provide new opportunities for artists while also bringing something fresh and contemporary to a territory where this kind of dialogue is largely absent.
Do you also work with local artists or other cultural organizations to create a network of collaborations and synergies?
Amina: Exactly. This was the pilot edition, so there was a lot to do and the team was small: Tatiana and I handled the curatorial work, while Michelangelo took on the operational role, developing a network of local collaborations since he was born and raised here. Tatiana and I asked ourselves how to engage with the place in the most respectful way possible, without appropriating it, gentrifying it, and then leaving it as contemporary art often does. We decided to use the association as a platform to open the space to other local initiatives: for example, with the Radici Urbane festival in Alessandria, we screened La Chimera, and Tatiana managed the collaboration with Radic’Arte.
Tatiana: Radic’Arte is an association focused on contemporary dance but with a very interdisciplinary approach. With them, we organized a meeting for young people under 30, discussing what it means to bring artistic initiatives to provincial areas like this one.
Amina: We also started a program with schools, focusing in particular on elementary schools, which are key educational centers. For the students, we designed introductory journeys to contemporary art – a world that people usually only encounter later in life. To do this, we used the works displayed in the exhibition, the outcome of the residency. We organized guided tours and workshops with the artists, always tailored to the students’ ages. It felt like a meaningful way to give back to the community.
Tell us about the title of the residency, RUINS. How did the dialogue between the artists, you as curators, and the Santa Croce Complex develop during the residency?
Amina: We needed a broad theme to ensure the works would form a coherent exhibition. The title RUINS seemed ideal because it allowed for a wide range of interpretations without imposing strict limitations. This space exists between preservation and decay, making it a perfect starting point to explore and highlight the history of Santa Croce.
We want to emphasize that ruins are also an opportunity to tell new stories and question both past and present. The theme allowed the artists to expand their research in direct relation to the site. Ruins have a dual dimension: they are debris, but they also carry cultural – and sometimes even emotional – value.
To extend the research beyond Santa Croce itself, we looked into the broader area, which has an industrial vocation but a past rooted in agriculture. Many traces remain, such as abandoned farmhouses and factories; these ruins narrate the layered history of the territory.
The concept of RUINS was approached as regenerative, rather than as an object of mere fascination. We are now working on the catalog, to be published in December by Allemandi, with the entire process beautifully documented through the photography of Lorenzo Morandi.
What criteria guided your selection among the applications you received?
Amina: We didn’t impose any restrictions on media or age. For example, we chose to include a performance by Jade Blackstock, a form of expression often excluded from projects like this because it is completely ephemeral. The selection process was complex: we received 400 applications through the open call.
We asked ourselves what we could offer the artists beyond the production budget and coverage of accommodation and travel costs for the three-month residency, during which they would create the final work for the closing exhibition. In return, we requested that artists spend most of the three months on site – it’s essential to get to know the territory, the people who live there, and the exhibition space. All interventions had to be site-specific, conceived specifically for the location. It’s a significant commitment for the artists, but we felt it was the right approach for the site, the project, and the community.
We wanted Italian artists as we aim at supporting emerging talent in Italy. We selected a local artist, Teresa Prati, to provide an artistic interpretation of the territory from someone who knows it intimately, and also to serve as a resource for supporting other artists. At the same time, we included an international artist to give Mares a more open, outward-looking dimension.
Regarding age and professional status, we invited more established artists like Giovanni Chiamenti, already represented by a gallery, as well as truly emerging artists. Our intention was to create interaction and exchange during the residency, so that different languages and practices could intersect and dialogue.
During the residency, we also organized studio visits and meetings in nearby cities – we went to the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Pirelli HangarBicocca, as well as independent spaces like Cripta and Ordet – so that artists could begin to build their networks. Finally, we invited external curators to visit the space and discover the works, activities we consider invaluable for those shaping their artistic careers.
Tatiana: Additionally, each year we aim to include a more interdisciplinary figure to contextualize the artists’ work within the territory. This year, we collaborated with an architect duo, Lemonot, who, together with photographer Lorenzo Morandi, produced a visual essay on the farmhouses built in the 1500s around the convent.
In terms of the spaces, how did you approach the exhibition design and the dialogue between the works and the site?
Tatiana: Each artist created three bodies of work. We asked each of them for a proposal before arriving, which inevitably evolved over the course of the three months. We gave the artists a great deal of freedom.
Within the complex, some areas are inaccessible, but we still managed to create a diffuse exhibition across the entire upper floor of one of the two cloisters. The exhibition route had to be guided, as the space is very labyrinthine.
Amina: Over the three months, we visited the Complex with the artists almost every day, exploring new corners and perspectives depending on the light, the airflow, the scents, and the sounds. In this way, we created a coherent visitor route that made full use of the site’s unique characteristics. We wanted to engage with this monumental space in a thoughtful and deliberate way.
By the end of the residency, all the artists had created highly ambitious, large-scale works. The challenge – and the beauty – of the exhibition lay in bringing them together into a meaningful route, guided both by us and by the artists themselves.
Can you briefly tell me about the exhibition, the outcome of the residency? What works emerged from the artists’ researches?
Amina: Giovanni Chiamenti, who works at the intersection of art, science, and biology, focused on the geological history of Monferrato and contemporary analyses of the aquifers in the Bossea caves, which revealed the presence of microplastics even in seemingly pristine areas. His large mixed-media paintings, Genomic Chimeras #1 and Genomic Chimeras #2 (2025), respond to this startling discovery, depicting a contaminated, hybrid, and toxic nature. Fascinated by aluminum, he also created his first sculptures in the material during the residency, Processed Archetypes (2025), which anticipate a post-human imaginary. His watercolors, Bestiaria VII and Bestiaria VIII (2025), explore the hybridization of marine creatures and their adaptation to environmental microplastics. The video work Key Bioindicator (2025) completes the dialogue between Genomic Chimeras and Processed Archetypes.
During the residency, Luca Pagin expanded his research Na Sagra!, focused on pig slaughtering, a millenary ritual also typical of the Alessandria area. He also engaged with the history of the former juvenile reformatory and its ruins through It was dirty and clean of blood and cream (2025): five sculptures cast from soap dishes and sinks from the upper floors, made in lard and scented with Olio 31.
Tatiana: Originally from Novi Ligure, Teresa Prati presented L’Educazione (Ain’t No Fun) (2025), a sound work that spreads along the main staircase of the convent like a Gregorian chant performed by children’s voices. In fact, the piece is a reinterpretation of Ain’t No Fun (1992) by Snoop Dogg featuring Nate Dogg, Warren G, and Kurupt, a classic of American hip-hop with misogynistic and violent lyrics. The work reflects both the influence of American pop culture on all of us and the history of the Santa Croce Complex, highlighting the absence of female figures.
Big Cake (2025) plays on the literal translation “big cake” and the nearby town of Tortona. Although the video suggests an American setting, it was filmed in areas surrounding the convent using the artist’s personal connections.
Jade Blackstock focused on the surrounding landscape, located in one of Italy’s oldest industrial zones, and on the local tradition of beekeeping. She discovered that the acacia tree, from which bees collect nectar for the region’s prized honey, is not native to Italy but was introduced from North America for reforestation and post-agricultural recovery. Beekeeping was also historically integral to monastic agrarian life.
This research culminated in the creation of two sculptural works, the first of their kind in Blackstock’s practice, made from honey and beeswax. Untitled (2025) is a hand-worked metal panel with a rusted surface, onto which the artist applied hundreds of drops of resinified honey that attracted bees throughout the exhibition. The second Untitled (2025) is a monumental 13-meter-long cotton drape entirely covered in layers of beeswax, suspended within the cloister. By capturing light and diffusing the scent of beeswax, it engaged the viewer’s senses in an immersive experience.
LINK
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