Shades of Napoli by Stéphanie Moussallem highlights the historic centre of Naples

The Made in Cloister Foundation in synergy with House of Today and EDIT Napoli has participated in the third edition of the fair within the EDIT CULT programme of collaborations, exhibitions and installations, with the project Shades of Napoli by Lebanese designer Stéphanie Moussallem.

Until 30 January 2022, a few steps from Porta Capuana, in the historic center of Naples, the evocative setting of the sixteenth-century cloister will host the new collection born of the collaboration between the Made in Cloister Foundation – a cultural hub rooted in the territory with an international vision dedicated to contemporary art, design, music and artisanal traditions – and House of Today, a non-profit organization that promotes Lebanese designers among global networks.

The protagonist is Stéphanie Moussallem, interior and furniture designer based in Beirut, who, in the summer of 2021 completed an artistic residency programme in Naples, working side by side with various local artisans and traditional realities to create a line of lamps inspired by Naples and its mille culure (thousand colours).

In Shades of Napoli, Stéphanie Moussallem experiments with the processing of coral, cathedral glass, wood carving, fabrics and silk. The residence and the project were keenly followed by Eleonora De Blasio, Councillor of the Made in Cloister Foundation, as they embarked on a journey into the ancient knowledge of making, with master craftsmen of the caliber of Paolo Gambardella, coordinator of the project and expert in the processing of glass and other materials; Gianni Mocerini, second generation craftsman who trained in his father's workshop refining the tradition of woodturning; and acclaimed companies such as Ascione, a family-run business known for its coral production.

The context is not entirely unusual for Stéphanie Moussallem, as it is one in which she encounters all the charm of her hometown. “Naples and Beirut are surprisingly similar: the passionate people, the love for the family, the strong presence of faith in daily life... Beyond the Mediterranean fusion, urban disorder juxtaposed with a natural serenity, charm and determination, generate bursting energy that can only exist in such a menagerie of stimuli and contradictions," says the designer.

Sophisticated, expressive research combined with high quality production processes, gives rise to a collection of four lamps inspired by the infinite suggestions that the Mediterranean city and its surroundings have given to the Lebanese designer: Sottomarino, Granita Di Limone, Campania and Posillipo. A variegated mélange of coral, velvet and religious symbolism, is combined with locally produced multi-coloured glass and intricate woodwork, in Stéphanie Moussallem’s first collection of lamps. Energetic and highly material, it embodies the interaction of elements of the Neapolitan artisan tradition with noble and precious materials.