Three Italian Artists Create Ceramic Works in Salento's Cutrofiano

The curatorial duo Francesco Scasciamacchia and Davide Notarpietro, founders of the association Cijaru, organized a residency and exhibition in Cutrofiano, an ancient ceramic center in Salento, Italy. Three rooms of the Palazzo Ducale host works by Salvatore Arancio, Riccardo Baruzzi, and Alice Visentin, created in collaboration with local artisan Giuseppe Colì. Arancio, a veteran of contemporary ceramics, presents five biomorphic sculptures resembling rocks from an unknown landscape, with iridescent surfaces and embedded ears and fragments of nature. Visentin, less experienced with ceramics, produced vessels with zoomorphic motifs and a series of Pignate collected from local homes, retouched with instinctive spray paint marks and suspended from the ceiling. Baruzzi's installation features scarecrows combining branches from the local countryside with ceramic shards historically used by farmers to ward off bees from trees, evoking ancient agrarian rituals. The project aims to revitalize Cutrofiano's ceramic tradition through contemporary art, following successful models like Faenza and Montelupo.