“Every time I watched patients undergo experimental treatments in the Phase 1 Research Center I thought: we must bring the person back to the Center, go beyond the experimental procedures, respecting the times of the protocols, but also respecting a time for the patient, for his family members, for ourselves as operators”, says the Prof Marina Elena CazzanigaDirector of the Research Center of the IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori Foundation and associate professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Milan-Bicocca, has always been involved in the treatment and research of breast cancer.
Thus, from free thoughts, as well as from a profound reflection on the meaning of research and science that keep man, the person, at the center of every action, the project “Art & Science at the Center – The Self, the Life, the Cure” HERMIONE-15: a one-of-a-kind artistic and research project, which involves the exhibition, directly in the rooms where patients receive experimental treatments, of four artistic projects for one year, each lasting three months.
Health and Art are precious allies, and making them interact is an increasingly widespread practice, at a national and international level: in 2019 the World Health Organization, WHO, published a report on “Evidence of the role of the arts in improving health and of well-being”, point of arrival and restart of scientific research on this topic.
In recent years, social and health policies and tools have been developed such as laboratories, well-being activities for patients and others carried out in places of culture, artistic exhibitions in the healthcare sector, which have shown how art is a valid companion in the treatment process. The “Art & Science at the Center” project brings art directly to the lane of the Research Center of the IRCCS San Gerardo and the team of experts, coming from the different Departments of the University of Milan-Bicocca (Medicine and Surgery, Sociology and Economics Quantitative Methods and Business Strategies), have developed questionnaires and tools that measure the impact of exposure to artistic works on psycho-physical and emotional well-being in a sample of patients affected by breast cancer and enrolled in clinical studies, merging a single symphony the colors of artistic works and the colors of research.
Other professional figures also directly contributed to the project, starting from the staff of the Research Center, including the coordinator, Dr. Cristina Tagliabue and the head of the Study Coordinators, Dr. Edoardo Mauri, to Dr. Vincenzo Galimberti, former Internist Doctor at the ASST Bergamo Ovest and now a palliative care doctor at the Hospice of Calcinate.
The HERMIONE-15 project, with the artistic curatorship of Dr. Maddalena Mongera, employee of the IRCCS Foundation, is promoted by the University of Milan-Bicocca, with the help of ArteA Art Gallery and with the unconditional support of the Menarini Foundation.
“The Project aims to enhance the person in his uniqueness and value, contributing to his personal growth during the treatment period, nourishing a sense of humanity that goes beyond the disease – continues Prof. Cazzaniga – it wishes to deconstruct the image of “patient /guinea pig”, which burdens the treatment period, and helps a sense of motivation, trust, collaboration, both for the patient, for the caregiver, and for the healthcare worker involved in the therapy. It also aims to de-technologize the Research Center, making it more inclusive, welcoming and less aseptic, and to improve the quality of the time spent at the Center, filling the sense of empty waiting that people experience between treatments, trying to transform it into a moment of human growth, through the experience of art”.
The artists involved will be, for the year 2024-25, Alfredo Rapetti Mogol, Pao, Monica Temporiti and Salvatori Alessi: “Everyone is connected to the theme of care through their own artistic creation, using different mediums and orthographies, from the “decomposed word” , painted and sculpted, to street art, to minimalist and material art, to portraits, and allow us to explore what “the self, life, care” are in different meanings, while presenting works of different temperaments and different subjects ”, says the curator.
The project was inaugurated on Wednesday 25 September, at the Phase 1 Research Center, in the presence of the artists involved.
“It is essential that art interacts with the treatment process, creating a welcoming and human space, in which every woman can feel supported and valued in her journey – she underlined Giovanna Iannantunirector of the University of Milan-Bicocca -. I hope the initiative that starts today can continue with the participation of numerous artists, to continue to give relief to women who are facing difficult and delicate moments in their lives”.
“With this project – he adds Claudio Cogliatipresident of the IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori Foundation – we want to demonstrate how the experience of art is an aid to the treatment process and is a benefit for patients, for the family members who assist them and for the staff of the Research Centre: the art helps people discover and get to know themselves and restores the human sense of care. It helps to communicate by touching deep chords that don’t always have a voice. The experience of art also impacts the hospital environment, demonstrating how it, stimulated by art, has a positive influence on the treatment process.”