Trattoria Guaiana

A project by Niccolò Moronato, Prince Asford, and Alice Jasmine Crippa.
In conversation with Villa Romana 2024 Fellows and invited guests.
Curated by Elena Agudio and Mistura Allison.

Trattoria Guaiana is a convivial, participatory cuisine table to explore what it tastes, looks and feels like to live in a society where tradition is no longer used for ‘othering’ people and, instead, it learns from every voice that contributes to its reality.

Trattoria Guaiana stems from the acknowledgment of a significant historical erasure: the attempt by the Medici to colonise the Amazon in 1608, in what is now called French Guyana”, and the story of the six Tupì people who travelled to Florence on board the Tuscan expedition, never to return home.

By materialising this fact into popular culture through flavours and sensorial experiences, the Trattoria creates an open source space at the edges of Italian tradition and identity, supporting the cultures and natures that contributed but are still excluded from it.

The Salone of Villa Romana will turn into a Tuscan-Guyanese trattoria,becoming a space of gathering for communal sharing and critical reflection.

It will host an installation of the world of “Guaiana Toscana”, the ongoing, Italian Council-supported research by Niccolò Moronato from which the Trattoria stems, as well as books, conversation objects, and a plant-based, organic soundscape created by SADI using Moronato’s archive of sounds sampled across Uruguay, Brazil, French Guyana, Dominica, Barbados, Tuscany, and Martinica.

Join us for lunch or dinner, ci vediamo a cena!

Convivial Meals — June 2nd, 6th & 8th
Public programming — June 4th & 5th
Guaiana Toscana Garden Inauguration — June 9th
Finissage — July 14th

RSVP