Profiles

Husband and wife artists Claudio Benghi and Gloria Ronchi, from Milan, knew they wanted an overseas experience when Claudio finished his PhD - they just didn't know where.

So, they let the finger of fate decide.

The couple were living in Milan

Taking a map showing all the cheap flights from Milan they put down a finger at random.

Destination? Newcastle.

And it seems fate made the right decision.

"It's quite different from Milan but we love it," Gloria says, sitting in the couple's studio at The Biscuit Factory one grey, winter morning early in 2009.

"We think it's quite alive and it's more multicultural than Milan. We see people from all around the world here. It's also vibrant artistically. There are some great galleries.

"We think there is a big potential in Newcastle," she adds.

Aether & Hemera

Claudio's background is in architecture, specialising in interactive and visual design. Gloria's passion is lighting.

In Milan, Gloria worked with architects and planners on a variety of projects lighting buildings and landscapes - but never with Claudio.

When they arrived in England, however, they started to work together "to create something unique".

Roses Halo took inspiration from Saltwell Park

Under the name of their newly-formed company, Aether & Hemera, Gloria and Claudio's main focus is on developing lighting and interactive installations.

At the end of 2008 they created a lighting installation for the Enchanted Parks event in Saltwell Park, part of the Newcastle and Gateshead Winter Festival.

Entitled Roses Halo, the work combined huge, glowing red roses with the sound of different voices reading the Latin names of the roses growing in the Saltwell Park rose garden, where the installation was placed.

"We wanted to create an imaginary and enchanted garden that remembered the spring time and also the fragility of nature," Gloria explains.

"We also like to create surprise encounters with our installations, in this case creating an oversize rose garden."

The interactive element of their work, meanwhile, manifests itself in various ways.

There's a chair that changes colour according to what the person sitting on it is wearing, for example.

And they're currently in the process of designing an artwork for an NHS centre in Cornwall that will change colour in response to how people move around the space.

Claudio elaborates: "It's a way for us to create an ambience that is responsive and that actually behaves differently as people behave.

"We think this will help make it a better welcoming experience for people and improve the time while they are waiting for appointments."

Shared inspiration

You'd imagine that living and working together in a foreign country could be bit stressful at times. But it seems not.

The lights in the chair change colour

Claudio and Gloria constantly finish off each other's sentences and they describe their working relationship in similar terms - they build on each other's strengths rather than competing.

"We are quite different in the way we see things so it's like one has an idea and the other can add another and add another," Gloria says, miming different levels being added on top of each other with her hands.

"There are arguments sometimes of course," Claudio adds, "but we have very similar artistic taste and we share inspiration so it's an easy process."

Settled on Tyneside

Several months after the pair arrived in the UK in 2008 the low cost route between Newcastle and Milan was cancelled - but Claudio says they feel so settled in the city that it doesn't seem to matter now.

They love the Quayside and the Northumberland coast and are looking forward to forging new working relationships with architects and interior designers in the north-east of England.

So, it's just the Geordie accent that remains to be conquered.

"Claudio can understand but I really have some problems with the Geordie accent," Gloria laughs. "When the man came to fix our telephone connection I couldn't understand a word. I asked him to repeat the same phrase ten times."

Claudio finishes the story: "I wasn't in that day but I received a phone call: 'Claudio can you please talk to this man!'"

See some of Claudio and Gloria's other works on their website: