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A Dialogue Between Cultures, Materials, and Visions in the Italian Pavilion
During the week of June 1–7, 2025, the Marche Region took center stage at the Italian Pavilion of Expo 2025 Osaka with the project “Ars: Tradition and Innovation.” Curated by Antonella Nonnis for Progetto Zenone, with exhibition design and graphics by elleemme studio, the show drew inspiration from Renaissance workshops and celebrated the excellence of Marche’s craftsmanship—a legacy rooted in know-how, innovation, and a humanistic vision that speaks not only of "know-how," but also of "know-being."
The exhibition was hosted within the conceptual framework of the Italian Pavilion designed by Mario Cucinella, who reinterpreted in a contemporary key the iconic and mysterious painting The Ideal City, attributed to Luciano Laurana and housed in the Ducal Palace of Urbino. This work became the centerpiece of a captivating new installation. Cucinella’s expanded architectural vision placed the human being and their relationship with nature at its core, along with humanity’s ability to regenerate the world through art, culture, and design.
i-Mesh was among the companies selected by the Marche Region to showcase local excellence to the world, as part of the “Connecting Lives” section, dedicated to the meeting between East and West through a tapestry exhibition conceived as an installation aimed at fostering multicultural dialogue.
These tapestries are part of the Arazzi Contemporanei project, a creative and productive collection conceived by Cristiano Toraldo di Francia and Alberto Fiorenzi. At its origin lies the thread: multi-axial and multifunctional, it becomes a fluid, tactile, flexible, and iconic technical fabric. Both object and project, it is tailored for art, architecture, and design. The thread engages with great architecture; it softens, adapts, and interprets form and meaning in public space. Historically, tapestry is one of the most emblematic expressions of both know-how and know-being—a symbol of design capacity and vision, a synthesis of form, sign, and meaning. It was so in the past and remains so today, embracing technological innovation, material research, and sustainable production.
The collection—already featured at major international events—was enriched for Expo Osaka with four new tapestries, original pieces by Tomo Ara, Kengo Kuma, Yuko Nagayama, and Migliore+Servetto, unveiled for the first time at the Italian Pavilion. Tomo Ara’s tapestry, a tribute to Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, references the iconography of Superstudio, reinterpreting the Histograms of Architecture through a fluid, three-dimensional grid that emphasizes depth and movement. Kengo Kuma drew inspiration from Kumiko, the traditional Japanese art of assembling geometric wood patterns, often incorporating auspicious symbols. Yuko Nagayama explored the ideas of flow and waving, using layered models of waves in varying sizes. Migliore+Servetto created a tapestry inspired by the theme of passage, shaped by light and texture, with a vertical and orthogonal pattern—denser at the center and fading toward the edges, featuring open and permeable weaves that respond to the surrounding void.
Despite their stylistic differences, all the tapestries reflect the spirit and essence of i-Mesh: a technical and environmentally compatible material, a thread that becomes an original and personal mark, capable of integrating into diverse contexts as a conduit for cultural and symbolic references. A material that enhances and expresses each project’s identity with innovative forms and solutions—bridging language, performance, and environmental installation.
“Beyond the authorial touch, the geometry of the signs and their arrangement—each pattern makes the tapestry a symbolic act, renewing the language and iconography of an art and craft tradition,” explains Alberto Fiorenzi. “The infinite interweaving of forms and meanings becomes a repository and legacy of ancestral narratives: an expression of ethnic belonging, a heraldic emblem, a symbol of guilds and power, a representation of the sacred and the spiritual, a complex and metabolized reflection of nature.”
Alongside the tapestries stood the Byōbu—traditional Japanese folding screens that served as scenic backdrops to the exhibition niches. Designed by architect Matteo Belfiore, they deepened the dialogue with Japanese aesthetics through an interplay of full and empty, lightness and depth.
In this experience that brought together local roots as identity and a global outlook, i-Mesh served as a bridge between worlds and imaginations—between Italian craftsmanship and Japanese culture, united by ideals of beauty, care, and artisan perfection. Its inherently international outlook offered the opportunity to tell an original story that lives at the intersection of art and discipline, shaped by contemporary sensibilities. A story woven from visual memories that define the cultures of texture and pattern, engaged with urgent global challenges like climate change, and committed to ensuring the well-being of people and the environments they inhabit.
