PAST

The exhibition draws inspiration from and gives voice to various traditions and cultures, reflecting the widespread interest in textiles, not only as a medium of artistic expression but also as an integral part of daily life for individuals, peoples, and cultures, representing their most intimate and profound identities. The show features post-2000 artworks that use textiles as a language of choice to fashion visual landscapes, narratives, environments, and connections. Textiles become a lens for exploring approaches and traditions across national boundaries. Through continuous opportunities for learning and creative education, the audience is called to participate by imagining “sites” of engagement, in a reflection that starts from the local and history and extends internationally and into the future.

Let Me Mend Your Broken Bones (2025) is a new site-specific installation by Dana Awartani. Starting from photographs of Palazzo Ardinghelli taken after the 2009 earthquake, the artist exposes the contours of the cracks and the partial collapse of the architectural structures. On silk hand-woven by master weavers from Kerala and using natural dyes made from herbs and spices with medicinal properties, these silhouettes become tears in the silk that are then “darn” by an intimate and artisanal gesture that repairs and shelters.

Images courtesy of the artist and MAXXI L'Aquila