Contemporary Roots places Tuscia craftsmanship inside Villa Lante and Palazzo Farnese
Contemporary Roots is presented across Villa Lante in Bagnaia and Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola. Curated by the CNA of Viterbo and Civitavecchia, the project brings together a selection of contemporary artisan works. These pieces are positioned within historic architecture in central Italy, establishing a precise dialogue between material culture and Renaissance spatial systems. Coordinated by PromoTuscia with the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome and the Chamber of Commerce of Rieti-Viterbo, the project frames Tuscia craftsmanship as both continuity and active reinterpretation.
At Villa Lante, defined by its sixteenth-century Mannerist garden, and Palazzo Farnese, structured through its pentagonal plan and frescoed interiors, the works enter spaces governed by proportion, geometry, and ornament. These settings operate as more than contextual backdrops. They function as calibrated environments where contemporary objects are measured against historical logic. The Contemporary Roots uses this proximity to test how present-day craftsmanship responds to architectural order, scale, and material permanence.
Nine artisans from Tuscia and Sabina contribute to the Contemporary Roots, each grounded in a specific material language. Ceramics emerges through the work of Cinzia Chiulli – Percorsi Artistici, who revisits the zaffera technique, a cobalt blue relief process linked to late medieval production. Daniela Lai of Bottega d’Arte extends this trajectory with a peperino stone table, sculpted, glazed, and fired with crystal inserts, transforming a traditional material into a functional object that moves between interior and exterior contexts.
Wood and sound introduce another layer of continuity. Through Laboratorio Linfa, Luigi Cuppone develops furniture from reclaimed wood, allowing the material’s grain to guide both structure and form. Andrea Di Maio, a master instrument maker, constructs harpsichords and organs entirely by hand, applying traditional woodworking techniques to instruments distributed across international cultural institutions. In both cases, wood operates as a carrier of memory while remaining open to contemporary interpretation.
Fashion and collectible design expand the typological range of the Contemporary Roots. Maria Vittoria Bordo presents tailored garments defined by precision and material awareness, while Loretta Purgatori, through Dipende Design, produces collectible furniture that questions the relationship between function and formal research. Stilhaus, founded by Simone and Michela Bianchini, contributes bathroom furnishings designed for durability and temporal resistance, positioning industrial production within an artisanal framework.
Jewelry completes the narrative through the work of Roberta Pietrini, founder of Neloo, and Irene Lupi of Curaes. Pietrini transforms natural and reclaimed materials, including Brazilian capim dourado, into contemporary pieces shaped by experimentation and technical control. Lupi draws from the botanical and mineral references of the Sabina landscape, translating them into a personal design language. Together, the nine artisans define Contemporary Roots as a system of practices rooted in Tuscia, where craftsmanship is not preserved as heritage but continuously reformulated in relation to place, material, and time.
Contemporary Roots: https://contemporaryroots.it
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