STRAFhub presents AMBIENTI. Space as Experience, a site-specific intervention by Goldschmied & Chiari
From 18 March 2026, as part of STRAFhub—a cultural program that animates the spaces of STRAFhotel in Milan throughout the year with contemporary art and design interventions—AMBIENTI. Space as Experience, a site-specific project by the duo Goldschmied & Chiari (Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari), explores the relationship between art, architecture, and the urban context through photography, video, and performance.
This intervention further establishes STRAFhotel as a site for experimentation and a hub of contemporary creativity, transforming the hotel threshold through the poetic vision of Goldschmied & Chiari. On the lobby’s glass façade, one of their Untitled Views comes to life—evocative visions of chromatic clouds whose genesis is documented in a short film accompanying the work.
Within the hotel setting, the intervention does not merely occupy the space; it radically transforms it: Through the perceptual shift created by the installation, the lobby acquires a new identity, and light, filtered through translucent films, alters visitors’ perception, engaging them in an unprecedented sensory experience.
What remains impressed in memory is not simply the rigor of architectural form, but the personal interplay of reverberations, sounds, and scents that shape each visitor’s emotional experience.
This invisible web of perceptions, to which the work is dedicated, invites a rediscovery of space not as emptiness, but as a vibrant experience. The STRAFhub project redefines hospitality, transforming it into a temporary gallery where art engages in dialogue with the architecture and history of the site:
"I love the works of Goldschmied & Chiari because they speak the language of the senses," says Sarah Mancino, Owner of STRAFhotel. "They are character and mystery. Through their light, colors, and reflections, they occupy the space, captivating the observer."
With this second appointment, STRAFhub confirms STRAF as a meeting point between hospitality and contemporary creativity, where every experience invites visitors to engage with space in a new, participatory, and surprising way.
About Goldschmied & Chiari
Goldschmied & Chiari is an artistic duo formed by Sara Goldschmied (born in Arzignano, 1975) and Eleonora Chiari (born in Rome, 1971). They live and work in Milan. Their practice intertwines photography, installation, performance, and video, exploring collective memory, power, and female identity. They create immersive environments and images that oscillate between artifice and reality, dreamlike vision and historical tension. A recurring theme is the relationship between nature and artifice, explored through symbolic landscapes and altered atmospheres. Self-representation is often employed as a narrative and symbolic device. Their work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Chengdu Biennale, Venice Biennale, FRAC Bretagne, Museo Novecento, Castello di Rivoli, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Fundació Joan Miró, Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Havana), Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington.
About STRAFhotel
Located in the heart of Milan, just steps from the Duomo, STRAF—an acronym for Saint Raphael, named after Via San Raffaele where it is located—was founded from the unconventional vision of Daniela and Gerardo Bertazzoni, former managers of another Milanese landmark, the Grand Hotel et de Milan. Together with their daughters Alissia and Sarah Mancino, they transformed the concept of a hotel into a contemporary and bold project. Designed by young architect Vincenzo De Cotiis, STRAF combines architecture, design, and art in every detail, creating modular and ever-evolving spaces. Each environment, from guest rooms to common areas, is conceived to offer a unique, sensory, and immersive experience, where materials, light, and atmosphere interact with the guest, turning a stay into a creative and personal journey.
About STRAFhub
Founded in 2024 from the clear and personal curatorial vision of Sarah Mancino, the eclectic soul behind STRAF, STRAFhub transforms the hotel from a traditional hospitality venue into a hub—a crossroads of experimentation, creativity, and encounter, but also a space for pause and reflection. The project animates the spaces of STRAFhotel throughout the year through a calendar of events and initiatives ranging from installations and site-specific interventions to workshops, performances, and cultural meetings. These are designed both for hotel guests and the general public, transforming the hotel lobby into a temporary gallery where art and architecture engage with the environment and its visitors, generating content, dialogue, and new sensory perspectives.
STRAFhub AMBIENTI. Space as Experience, di Goldschmied & Chiari
c/o STRAFhotel, Via San Raffaele 3, 20121, Milano (IT)
Opening: from 18 March to 18 April, 2026 - from 10am to 10pm
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