EDIT Cult, the programme of collaborations, exhibitions and installations linked to EDIT Napoli – www.editnapoli.com – returns to invigorate the historic centre of Naples in conjunction with the opening days of the fair on 29 — 31 October 2021 (press preview, October 28th, 2021), and will be open to the public until 30 January 2022.
For its third edition, EDIT Napoli flanks the Monumental Complex of San Domenico Maggiore with four exceptional locations within walking distance of each other: the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro, the Made in Cloister Foundation, the Gaetano Filangieri Civic Museum and the San Carlo Theatre.
Several designers, internationa entities and curators have been involved by the creators of the fair, Domitilla Dardi and Emilia Petruccelli, in the design of unreleased projects: Daniel Kruger and Galleria Antonella Villanova, Stéphanie Moussallem and House of Today, Federico Pepe and Federica Sala, and the French brand La Manufacture.
The “Daniel Kruger” exhibition curated by Marco Bazzini, dedicated to the jewels and ceramics of the German goldsmith artist, was born from the collaboration with the Antonella Villanova Gallery – a space dedicated to the mixture of contemporary jewellery, art and architecture. The rooms of the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro will showcase Amulets, a collection of pendants that combines materials such as gold and silver, precious and more common stones with natural objects and historical references linked to popular culture. Alongside the jewels, the Dinner Service Maria Callas a ceramic table set pays tribute to diva and opera singer: a collection of hand-painted plates, bowls and tureens, all decorated with black and white photos of the opera star.
Near Porta Capuana, the sixteenth-century cloister of Santa Caterina a Formiello of the Made in Cloister Foundation will host in its spaces – House of Today, a non-profit organization with a mission to identify, nurture, mentor, curate, showcase and connect Lebanese product designers with design experts. Naples and Italy, Beirut and Lebanon come together in a project in which artisans and manufacturers, creativity and savoir-faire interact: an inestimable heritage of the Mediterranean area. The interior and furniture design star of the project is Stéphanie Moussallem who, during a residence in Naples in July 2021, will meet local artisans and interact with traditional realities to create an original product through the processing of coral, majolica and ceramics, wood carving, fabrics and silk, and lost wax bronze casting.
A few steps from the Foundation, the Gaetano Filangieri Civic Museum will be the setting of Federico Pepe’s monographic exhibition “Chest’è” curated by Federica Sala – a project in which contamination, common roots and hybrid essence are the protagonists. A complex corpus of paintings, sculptures, wallpapers, carpets, design objects are all actors of a mobile imaginary in constant transformation. And as a token of this often-puzzling cross-disciplinary approach, the artist has chosen for the exhibition’s title an expression from Neapolitan dialect, which is characterized by its often untranslatable but punchy terminology: Chest’è. In this undefined yet worldly entirety, is the perfect synthesis of his universe of colours, symbols and signs in perpetual motion between form and representation.
First participation for the French brand La Manufacture which with an ad hoc installation will occupy the wonderful rooms of the San Carlo Theatre. The new design and fashion collections, designed by some of the most interesting actors on the international design scene, will dialogue with the artworks of the oldest opera house in the world.
Lastly, the prototypes of the ceramic and porcelain centre-table collection, created for MADE IN EDIT by the designer-architect Patricia Urquiola in collaboration with the Caselli Institute – Royal Factory of Capodimonte, will be at the centre of an installation and of an auction whose proceeds will be donated towards the restoration of the school’s internal garden.
Thanks to the busy EDIT Cult programme, the city of Naples, from a humble background, becomes the engine of a creative process, opening the doors of historical sites to contemporary design and activating new cultural synergies.