LAVINIA - Parte II

The site-specific works of American designer Johanna Grawunder and Romanian-born German artist Daniel Knorr open the new phase of LAVINIA, the contemporary art project curated by Salvatore Lacagnina, realised by Ghella and promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato della Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali with the collaboration of Zètema Progetto Cultura.

The project pays tribute to the late Mannerist painter Lavinia Fontana, one of the first female artists recognized by the history of art and present in the Borghese Gallery collection, and runs parallel to the various phases of restoration of the Loggia dei Vini, the elegant pavilion commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese at Villa Borghese. After the work on the vault, the central fresco and the pillars of the pavilion, completed in October 2024, restoration in this second phase involved the walls, plaster and roof of the 17th-century loggia.

Johanna Grawunder’s installation “Wiley in Rome” aims to enhance the perimeter walls (the subject of the next phase of restoration) with a series of fluorescent-colored UV lamps that dress them in light while respecting their history and centuries-old stratifications. With his “objets trouvés”, Daniel Knorr’s installation instead transforms the central space of the Loggia into a creative workshop. Continuing his series of “artist books” on which he has been working since 2007, Knorr has compressed between the pages of a book, with a force of more than fifty tons, objects and rubbish collected from the streets of Rome, seen as living testimony of the city. A text in Latin introduces them to highlight the long history of the eternal city.

The two new works add up to Gianni Politi’s seats, Monika Sosnowska’s handle that opens the entrance gate, Piero Golia’s infinite water fountain and Enzo Cucchi’s she-wolf on the grate. The Dante Desire Line Poetry Path by Ross Birrell & David Harding accompanies visitors with Dante’s words in and out of the Loggia. In memory of the sorbets served to Scipione Borghese’s guests, each opening of LAVINIA is associated with a flavor of ice cream, “strawberry and basil” in this second phase.

Header Daniel Knorr, foto Eleonora Cerri Pecorella