Uprise: Fabio Giampietro's Digital Installation at Porta di Milano

Uprise: Fabio Giampietro's digital installation at Porta di Milano

Uprise is a site-specific work created for the 12-metre LED videowall at Porta di Milano, Terminal 1 of Malpensa airport. The piece blends large-scale painting and digital video installation, offering travelers an immersive reading of the urban landscape through the interplay of painted surfaces and moving images.

What to see and how the project is made

The installation features five monumental painted canvases set against the projected images, creating a mirrored visual dialogue: physical painting and its digital counterpart. The textures are produced using a subtractive oil-on-canvas technique, then digitized and animated into a three-dimensional space where the painted surface extends within the generated imagery.

The work presents a transfigured Milan: architectures lose stability and the cityscape lifts and recomposes in a continuous upward motion, hovering between familiarity and abstraction.

Technical and sound components

• Video support: 12-metre LED videowall, Porta di Milano, Terminal 1 (Malpensa).
• Painting: five large-scale canvases created with a color-subtraction technique in oil.
• Digital: animation and 3D integration of painted textures.
• Soundtrack: original score by Human Touch studio and composer Alessandro Branca, guiding the shift from urban cues to more meditative abstraction.
• Production and curation: promoted by SEA Aeroporti Milano, produced by Meet Digital Culture Center and curated by Maria Grazia Mattei, with Valuart collaborating on digital production.

Why it matters

Fabio Giampietro (Milan, 1974) has spent over two decades investigating the intersection of painting and immersive technologies. His career includes shows at venues such as Palazzo Reale and the Venice Biennale and receiving the Lumen Prize for digital art in 2017. Uprise continues his exploration of the tension between painted surface and moving image, conceived specifically for an international transit hub.

Practical information

• Artist: Fabio Giampietro
• Location: Porta di Milano, Terminal 1, Malpensa Airport
• Exhibition period: 2026-04-15 (on display that day)
• Access: visible in the terminal's public areas; check airport opening times for visiting.
• Program: sixth edition of the "Nice to Meet You" series, showcasing Italian digital creativity.