Santiago Morilla

Santiago Morilla. Courtesy the artist

Born in Madrid in 1973, he lives and works dividing his time between Madrid and Rome. He received a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, and specialized in “New Media Art” at TAIK, the Helsinki University of Art and Design (Finland).

He has been the recipient of a number of awards and grants, including from the Reale Accademia di Spagna in Rome. During this year-long residency, the artist came up with the specific concept for NIDI, curated by Federica Forti and featuring itinerant interventions hosted in three prestigious exhibition centres in Rome: Pastificio Cerere, Accademia di Spagna and CO2 Gallery.

In 2011 he was a resident at the Gyeonggi Creation Center in Seoul, holding a position as lecturer for the “Conexiones” course in contemporary drawing at the ABC Museum of Drawing and Illustration in Madrid.

WATERMARKS Op.03 from santiago morilla on Vimeo.

The artist’s site-specific works and interventions are born out of his own firm decision to integrate them not only in the local environment, but also within global cartography – as a warning to sailors, or as “emotional mileposts” that attempt to trace unbeaten paths leading away from commonplace notions – inventing maps or readapting those existing. The objective is to reveal a context that is loaded with references.

Projects developed with DATABASE

In 2013 he produced INDEX FALLS, an artistic project focusing on the cyclical rise and fall of the economic benefits of the financial oligarchy, which the artist created specifically for the 2nd edition of DATABASE in Carrara.

The first part of INDEX FALLS featured a public performance held in three different locations within the Colonnata marble quarries, to which the artist was granted access for his artistic activity.

Videos and photographs taken during the performance were collected in the solo show INDEX FALLS, on display at the Marble Museum of Carrara, wherein the artist proposed new iconographic solutions for the temples of financial power revisiting the marble pediment and basrelief inspired by classical models.