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Forbes
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Art Review: Wangechi Mutu's Roman Debut Of Black Soil Poems At Galleria Borghese
Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Older Sisters © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese Wangechi Mutu–the Kenyan-American artist internationally celebrated for her visceral, genre-defying works–exhibits in Italy for the first time with Black Soil Poems . Mutu's debut Roman exhibition is currently on view at the historic Galleria Borghese. Curated by Cloé Perrone, the exhibition unfolds like a myth unearthed in fragments—emerging from the villa's Baroque opulence, threading through its ornate interiors, ascending to its façade, and finally settling into the Secret Gardens like memory returning to land. With this site-specific intervention, Mutu reshapes not only the physical spaces of the museum but also the historical and symbolic narratives long rooted within them. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Throned ļ © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese The Historic Setting: Galleria Borghese's Legacy The Galleria Borghese–located in the heart of Rome's Villa Borghese gardens–is one of the city's most prestigious art museums. Originally built in the early 17th century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V and a passionate art collector, the villa was designed as both a suburban retreat and a grand setting to showcase his vast collection, which included classical antiquities, Renaissance masterpieces, and Baroque works, from sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian. Much like the museum's recent homage to Baroque poet Giovan Battista Marino, Black Soil Poems continues Galleria Borghese's engagement with the poetic and the mythological. But where Marino played with the exuberance of language, Mutu mines the deeper, often darker strata of meaning. The exhibition's title points to her core themes: 'black soil' evokes fertility, richness, history, trauma, and regeneration. It is material as metaphor—a place where stories germinate, bodies are buried and reborn, and poetry takes shape through clay-like memory. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Water Woman ļ © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese A Landmark Debut: Wangechi Mutu in Rome Inside the Galleria Borghese, Mutu's interventions are elegant yet subversive. She neither displaces nor overwhelms the Borghese's famed collection of classical art. Instead, her works float, dangle and shimmer playfully—acting as whispers rather than proclamations. Sculptures such as Ndege , Suspended Playtime , and First Weeping Head are suspended delicately from the villa's ceilings, lightly interrupting the visual flow of the museum without obscuring it. These hanging pieces resist the pull of gravity and tradition alike. Their placement introduces a spatial reorientation: rather than gazing at static monuments of Western art history, visitors are urged to look up, around, within — to question what they see and what they don't. This act of suspension, both literal and conceptual, is one of the exhibition's most resonant talking points. Mutu's powerful art destabilizes permanence and power. Bronze, often used to convey heroism and stability, is in Mutu's hands reimagined as porous and ancestral—a medium that can hold memory rather than impose legacy. By incorporating organic materials like wood, feathers, soil, and wax, Mutu draws attention to fragility, fluidity, and metamorphosis. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with Underground Hornship | © Galleria Borghese © Galleria Borghese Poetry in the Soil: Thematic Roots of the Exhibition Mutu's enigmatic works do not mimic or mock classical aesthetics but create a contemporary counterpoint. They occupy liminal spaces—providing a bridge between tradition and reinvention, presence and absence. The museum becomes a palimpsest, with Mutu's sculptures as annotations in a language of ghosts and futures. She encourages viewers not just to look at what is visible, but to listen for what has been erased, silenced, or rendered invisible by centuries of patriarchal, colonial narratives. The exhibition's thematic richness carries seamlessly into the villa's façade and throughout the gardens. Mutu plants her bronze figures in the gardens like sentinels from another world. The Seated I and The Seated IV –first presented by Mutu in New York City in 2019 for The Met's Façade Commission–reappear at Galleria Borghese with renewed force. Part woman, part monument, part oracle, Mutu's statues reclaim the historically male-coded trope of the caryatid. They bear the weight not of buildings, but of histories and the potential for radical futures. Gardens as Portals: The Outdoor Installations Elsewhere in the gardens, seminal pieces including Nyoka , Heads in a Basket , Musa , and Water Woman continue Mutu's excavation of archetypal vessels—forms that hold water, spirit, memory. They are elemental and enigmatic, invoking East African traditions and wider global cosmologies. Video work such as The End of Eating Everything extends Mutu's sculptural vocabulary into time-based media, where animated, mythological beings twist and morph in an allegorical feast of consumption and transformation. The villa's garden becomes a liminal threshold–a kind of portal between Eden and exile. Galleria Borghese. Wangechi Mutu. Poemi della terra nera - Installation view with The Seated I and IV И. Galleria Borghese Galleria Borghese The Sound of Memory: A Multisensory Encounter Sound serves as an invisible thread throughout the show. From the ambient rhythm of Poems by my great Grandmother, to textual allusions drawn from Bob Marley's War —itself a reinterpretation of Haile Selassie's historic speech against racial injustice—Mutu weaves a multi-sensory tapestry of resistance and remembrance. Language becomes sculptural. Sound becomes a form of historical reckoning. The invisible becomes palpable. Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Galleria Borghese, aptly describes Mutu's work as encouraging a deeper, more intense way of looking — one that expands the museum experience beyond aesthetics into inquiry. 'They invite us to search for spirits, ghosts, transformation, and poetry,' she writes, 'to not stop at the visible or even at our horizon and its usual beauty.' Indeed, the exhibition reorients the museum from a shrine of preserved beauty into a site of poetic possibility and cultural dialogue. Black Soil Poems also continues beyond the Borghese walls. At the American Academy in Rome, Mutu's sculpture Shavasana I lies in repose among ancient Roman funerary inscriptions. This bronze figure, covered by a woven mat, named after the yoga pose associated with rest and release, quietly embodies death, dignity, and surrender. The installation deepens the exhibition's themes of mortality, transformation, and presence within absence. A Living Archive: Representation and the Black Female Body Mutu's broader practice spans sculpture, painting, film, collage, and installation, consistently returning to the politics of representation. Her hybrid female figures and dystopian dreamscapes ask: Who is seen? Who is imagined? Who is erased? Through this visual lexicon, she interrogates systems that idealize, exoticize, or dehumanize the female body, particularly the Black female body. In her ongoing dialogue with figuration, Mutu doesn't just reclaim space, she redefines it. The Language of Transformation: A Closing Reflection Black Soil Poems is not only a personal milestone for Mutu–her first solo exhibition in Italy—but also a significant moment for the Galleria Borghese. It follows the museum's recent commitment to contemporary art, including notable exhibitions by Giuseppe Penone and Louise Bourgeois. This curatorial trajectory acknowledges that history is not a fixed inheritance but an evolving dialogue, and that the past gains meaning when refracted through the lens of the present. Thanks to the support of FENDI, and a robust public program titled Esistere come donna (To Exist as a Woman), organized by Electa and Fondazione Fondamenta, the exhibition is part of a broader cultural conversation that considers gender, identity, and artistic lineage. With prestigious institutional partners, the program opens pathways for lectures and dialogues that expand upon the exhibition's themes. In Black Soil Poems , Wangechi Mutu offers a deeply layered, sensorially rich encounter that reclaims myth, memory, and space. Her work whispers, glimmers, and unsettles—not to obscure the past, but to seed something new from its soil. In the ancient city of Rome, whose marble monuments often speak with the authority of history, Mutu introduces the language of transformation, calling us to listen, to look again, and to imagine otherwise. Wangechi Mutu Black Soil Poems is at Galleria Borghese, Rome until September 14, 2025.
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Loro Piana Strengthens Equestrian Ties At The 92nd Piazza Di Siena
Edwina Tops Alexander Loro Piana Loro Piana, the Italian Maison known for its elegance, understated luxury, and exceptional textiles, has long been associated with fine sporting events, and this weekend we saw the luxury brand reinforce that connection by supporting the 92nd edition of the Concours de Saut International Officiel at Piazza di Siena. Edwina Tops Alexander Loro Piana Held in Rome's historic Villa Borghese, it's one of Europe's most prestigious equestrian competitions and as expected, offered a refined setting for Loro Piana to showcase its long-standing dedication to craftsmanship, tradition, and excellence. The House hosted two official competitions bearing its name: the Loro Piana Trophy and the Loro Piana Six-Bars, and representing the brand were Edwina Tops Alexander and Lorenzo De Luca, competing under Loro Piana's gold and blue colors as part of its jumping team. Lorenzo De Luca Loro Piana Loro Piana's connection to the equestrian world was inherent from the very beginning, with brothers Pier Luigi and Sergio Loro Piana, the former co-owners of the Maison, both passoniate riders. Sergio once described the sport as a school of life, one that instils perseverance and respect. Lorenzo De Luca Loro Piana Not only were the horses on show, it was also an opportunity to debut the latest version of the Loro Piana's equestrian uniforms, designed exclusively for the team, that channeled formal elegance and technical functionality. The pair wore a reworked Spagna jacket made from navy Bristol fabric, featuring an ochre cashmere pima collar and hand-finished crest buttons, which was paired with white jodhpurs in bonded stretch jersey, to offer comfort and easy movement. Loro Piana Spagna Jacket Loro Piana While off the oval, the riders wore pieces from Loro Piana's Icons collection which were originally developed for specific sporting activities, from sailing to motoring, and have evolved into essentials. Among these are the Horsey jacket in linen silk three-layer Belt Storm and bombers in Bristol and Windmate Stretch Storm, treated with Storm System making them water-repellent and wind-resistant for optimum performance. Loro Piana Horsey Jacket Loro Piana The stands and VIP spectator lounge reflected the event's pedigree, with a guest list to match, including the likes of Edie Campbell, Jessica Springsteen, Matilde Borromeo, Cloe Perrone, Maria Sole Torlonia, Maria Cristina Gasche, and Madina Visconti, each a familiar name in equestrian circles, and many wearing pieces from Loro Piana's S/S '25 collection. Edie Campbell Loro Piana Loro Piana's involvement in equestrian sport dates back to the '80s with the creation of its own jumping team, and in 1992 the brand applied its textile innovation to sportswear, designing the official uniforms for the Italian Show Jumping Team at the Barcelona Olympics, followed was the now-signature Horsey jacket. Since then, the Maison has continued to dress the Italian team at the Olympics and other major events, while also supporting the Loro Piana Puissance and the City of Rome Grand Prix. Jessica Springsteen Loro Piana Beyond equestrian sport, Loro Piana maintains a strong presence across other elite sporting events, including the I.C.E. St. Moritz classic car concours and the Regata dei Tre Golfi sailing competition, which also took part this month, reflecting the brand's focus on heritage and prestige. Loro Piana At Regata Dei Tre Golfi 2025 Loro Piana
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The Classic Villa Borghese Hosts a Classic Equestrian Event
When jumping a course, a horse and rider must always be looking ahead. But at the Piazza di Siena horse show in Rome, spectators are also invited to reflect on the past. That is because the grounds where the event is held, from Wednesday to Sunday, have a history dating back centuries to one of Italy's most famous noble families: the Borghese. The show takes place at the Piazza di Siena, an arena inside the Villa Borghese, a large public park in the heart of Rome just north of the Spanish Steps. The park was once the estate of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who in the 17th century commissioned the expansive gardens and a villa to house his art collection. The piazza was added in the late 18th century and was inspired by the Piazza del Campo in Siena, the Borghese family's home city. Since the 1920s, the arena has welcomed riders from around the world to compete at the highest levels of equestrian sport. Many ride on teams representing their countries in addition to competing as individuals. 'I think the event place and the atmosphere brings so much to the event itself,' said Karl Cook, an American rider who won the grand prix, the most challenging event of the show, at last year's competition. Having a stunning, historical backdrop 'just adds something different and something better to the whole experience, and that is on full display in Rome and at the Piazza di Siena,' he added. The Italian government bought the park at the turn of the 20th century, eventually opening it to the public, and it wasn't long before equestrian sport took center stage. The first horse show was held there in 1922, and the Piazza di Siena event has been held there every year with a few exceptions. Over the years, it has become one of the top equestrian competitions and last year joined the new Rolex Series, a group of seven show-jumping events around Europe and the United States. 'With events like Piazza di Siena, the most important thing is the legacy between these sport events and Villa Borghese,' said Diego Nepi Molineris, the chief executive of Sport e Salute, the state-owned company responsible for the development of sports in Italy and the event director of the show. The combination of the historical location and the artistry of equestrian sport, he added, means 'everything that you see during these events is beauty.' This year, the show will welcome around 600 horses and 470 riders, said Paolo Franci, head of communications for the Piazza di Siena show, and is free for anyone to attend. 'Every kind of person can go there,' Nepi Molineris said, 'and they can see the best show.' The competition begins on Thursday, lasts four days and will include the Intesa Sanpaolo Nations Cup, in which 10 teams of four riders compete on behalf of their country. It will culminate with the Rolex grand prix event. 'I just think it's a great celebration of horses, as well, and what they're capable of and what they bring us,' said Cook, who this year will be returning to the event with the same horse, Caracole de la Roque, hoping the pair can recreate last year's magic. 'Bringing horses into the middle of a city kind of sounds like oil and water, in a way. But I think that sort of reconnection and that celebration of horses is, I think, always healthy for us.' Since 2018, the park has been undergoing yet another transformation — to restore it to its former glory. Salut e Sport has been working to refurbish the park, leaning into a 'less is more' mentality, Nepi Molineris said. The goal is to make it look and feel as it might have years ago through landscaping and other projects, including restoring the arena's stands and replacing its sand footing with grass. With these improvements, 'Villa Borghese lives not only for the horse riding and the competition, but also for sport all during the year,' Nepi Molineris said. But equestrian competition will always be key to the identity of the Piazza di Siena. Comparing the event to Wimbledon, Nepi Molineris explained that there were 'some places in the world that you can see some things only there.'
