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HYBRID CREATURES AND PLURAL IDENTITIES: THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PRACTICE OF CAROLINE ACHAINTRE
| by Barbara Pavan | Born in France in 1969, Caroline Achaintre grew up in Germany and currently lives in the United Kingdom. She attended the Kunsthochschule in Halle before continuing her studies at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths University of London. This multiplicity of cultural and academic contexts has significantly enriched her personal background and imaginative universe, although, as the artist herself remarks, it remains difficult to determine precisely how these experiences have translated into direct influences on her artistic research. “I left France when I was very young,” she explains, “but I still feel a strong emotional connection to the country, which is why…
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MATTER, BODY, AND RELATIONALITY: DAVIDE VIGGIANO’S TRANSDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE BETWEEN ECOLOGY AND POSTHUMAN THOUGHT
| by Barbara Pavan | Davide Viggiano (Potenza, 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist whose background, spanning Textile Design and Visual Arts, has from the outset been shaped by the intersection of heterogeneous fields of knowledge. His artistic practice is distinguished by a sustained focus on experimenting with eco-sustainable materials of organic origin, explored through DIY processes and innovative methodologies aimed at the manipulation and formulation of new material compounds. Alongside his artistic production, he has developed a significant practice in the fields of design and education, collaborating with brands such as Westwing and teaching at institutions including NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Accademia…
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THE INTERNATIONAL TRIENNIAL OF TEXTILE ARTS IN SZOMBATHELY TOWARDS 2027: NEW DIRECTOR ESZTER SÖPTEI ON ITS HISTORICAL LEGACY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
| By Barbara Pavan | Within the international landscape of contemporary textile practices, the International Triennial of Textile Arts in Szombathely has established itself as a leading reference point. Hosted by the Szombathely Gallery (Szombathelyi Képtár) and organized in collaboration with the Savaria Museum and the Cultural Foundation for Textile Arts, the event represents one of the longest-running and most authoritative platforms dedicated to textile research in Central and Eastern Europe. As such, it offers a privileged perspective on the transformations that have shaped the textile medium from the second half of the twentieth century to the present day. Founded during the remarkable flourishing of Hungarian textile art in the…
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DECONSTRUCTION AND RE-WEAVING IN THE CONTEMPORARY TAPESTRY OF JOHN PAUL MORABITO
| by Barbara Pavan | The artistic practice of John Paul Morabito revolutionizes the language of tapestry, reinterpreting it as a medium through which to interrogate the relationship between the sacred, materiality, and the contemporary imaginary. Their approach is one of conscious balance between devotion and disobedience: Morabito draws on the textile tradition in order to overturn its symbolic hierarchies, redirecting the dimension of the sacred into a deeply queer cosmology. The materials that make up their works – cotton, wool, linen, synthetic gold, and glass beads – oscillate between preciousness and artificiality, giving shape to reflections in which the categories of the authentic and the artificial are continuously negotiated.…
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CARTOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY: TIME, SPACE, AND IDENTITY IN THE ART OF NAOMI MIDDELMANN
| by Barbara Pavan | Born in Switzerland, Naomi Middelmann moved to New York at the age of sixteen, where she completed her education with a degree in Creative Writing and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University. After working in the publishing sector, she returned to Europe to pursue visual arts, earning a postgraduate diploma from the Visual Art School in Basel in 2009. Her work has been presented in over seventy solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries, and art fairs across Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Middelmann’s artistic research is grounded in a critical reflection on the unstable and processual nature of time and space: just…
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CONSTRUCTING DWELLING: IN CONVERSATION WITH MARO FASOULI
| by Barbara Pavan | The notion of habitat – understood not simply as a physical structure, but as a space of energies, relationships and collective gestures – lies at the core of Maro Fasouli’s artistic research. Her work approaches dwelling not merely as the architectural boundary separating interior and exterior spaces, but as a broader cultural and social condition shaped by the frameworks through which societies organise private and public life. Rather than focusing on the protective function of walls and thresholds, Fasouli is interested in opening up the very idea of dwelling: the relationship between space and its inhabitant, and the ways in which this relationship is constructed…
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BETWEEN NEEDLE AND LENS: THE ART OF MELISSA ZEXTER
| by Barbara Pavan | Melissa Zexter hand-embroideres photographs that she has taken herself. Her work combines a modern, mechanically reproducible medium with a traditional handcraft practice. Her research explores the three-dimensional dimension of photography while investigating themes such as memory and identity. Through the act of embroidery, Zexter transforms each photograph into a unique object that can no longer be reproduced, in contrast to the overwhelming proliferation of images in the contemporary era. Born in Rhode Island, Zexter lives in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from New York University. She has exhibited internationally in both…
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VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE THREADS IN THE ART OF CLAUDIA CASARINO
| by Barbara Pavan | Claudia Casarino, born in Paraguay in 1974, trained in visual arts at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción and later extended her studies and research in New York and London. Her artistic practice is grounded in an acute awareness of the body, the dynamics of gendered discrimination, and a broader inquiry into the condition of women, often constrained between systemic violence and the pervasive weight of deeply rooted cultural stereotypes. Recognized as one of the most significant South American artists of her generation, Casarino has exhibited consistently since 1998 in leading international venues, including the Bienal do Mercosul, the Biennale dell’Avana, the Biennale di Tijuana, the…
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ON RELATIONSHIP: INTERTWININGS AND BONDS IN THE ART OF GIULIA NELLI
| by Barbara Pavan | Giulia Nelli’s artistic path began concretely and definitively with her encounter with pantyhose, a ductile and elastic material that facilitates the amplification of gesture and obeys a precise, meticulous manual skill aimed at surpassing already experimented canons. It also constitutes, symbolically, a medium deeply and intimately anchored to the feminine universe and to the social and cultural evolutions that have affected it over the decades. Above all, pantyhose adhere perfectly to the function of Nelli’s artistic practice, as she unravels and re-knots them, frays them, intertwines them – and this articulation and disarticulation perfectly evokes the complexity of human relationships, which are the origin and…
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IN CONVERSATION WITH GUDRUN BARTENBERGER-GEYER
| By Barbara Pavan | Gudrun Bartenberger-Geyer (Linz, Austria, 1969) has always intertwined her life with the languages of textiles, fashion, and the visual arts. After an initial education in Textile and Decorative Design in her hometown, she moved to Vienna, where she pursued a path that alternated between the academic study of art history and Italian at the University of Vienna and a more concrete and experimental practice in the field of Fashion and Clothing Technology, culminating in a Master Class for Dressmaking. This constant dialogue between theoretical research and artisanal know-how became the guiding thread of her poetics. In 2005 she further enriched her background with a specialization…
