III Biennale Internazionale di Fiber Art Contemporanea di Valtopina

With the third edition of the International Biennial of Contemporary Fiber Art, Valtopina is consolidating an exhibition and research project that, in just a few years, has established itself as one of Italy’s most significant initiatives dedicated to the languages of contemporary fiber art. From 4 September to 8 December 2026, the Museo del Ricamo e del Tessile (Valtopina Museum of Embroidery and Textiles) presents L’Amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle (The Love That Moves the Sun and the Other Stars), curated by Barbara Pavan and coordinated by Maria Mancini. The exhibition is promoted by the Scuola Ricamo di Valtopina (Valtopina Embroidery School) and the Municipality of Valtopina as part of the XXII Mostra del Ricamo e del Tessuto (22nd Exhibition of Embroidery and Textiles).
Following Appunti su questo tempo (Notes on This Time, 2022), devoted to the fragilities of the present, and Radici, Metamorfosi, Mescolanze (Roots, Metamorphoses, Interminglings, 2024), which explored processes of cultural and identity transformation, the Biennial concludes a curatorial journey that, over the course of four years, has examined our time through the languages of contemporary fiber art. The celebrated final verse of Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso becomes the starting point for a reflection on love understood not simply as a feeling, but as a relational principle capable of generating care, responsibility, belonging, desire, vulnerability, conflict and transformation.
The exhibition brings together works by Parimah Avani, Annalisa Bollini, Claudia Casarino, Ise Cellier, Barbara D’Antuono, Daniele Davitti, Mara Di Giammatteo, Ilaria Feoli, Magdalena Fermina, Grazia Gallo, Serena Gamba, Caren Garfen, Andi Kacziba, Silvia Manazza, Karola Pezarro, Michael Sylvan Robinson, Giulia Ronchetti, Yukoh Tsukamoto and Ann Vollum, artists active on the international contemporary art scene, invited to engage with one of the most universal and complex themes of human experience. Through embroidery, weaving, stitching, installation, textile sculpture and material experimentation, the works offer a plurality of perspectives on love, exploring its emotional, ethical, social, political, spiritual and symbolic dimensions.
The 2026 edition takes on particular significance within the framework of the commemorations marking the eight-hundredth anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi. Between Dante and Francis unfolds a cultural thread that deeply connects the Umbrian territory with contemporary reflection: two figures united by a vision of love as a force capable of placing human beings in relationship with one another, with the world and with creation. The Biennial takes up this legacy and entrusts it to the perspective of contemporary art, transforming it into an opportunity to engage with the major questions of the present.
Textiles emerge as a fully contemporary artistic language. Far removed from an exclusively technical or decorative interpretation, thread becomes a material for thought, a critical element and a narrative tool through which to explore themes such as memory, identity, relationships, care and belonging. Fiber art confirms its place among the most vital fields of contemporary artistic research, capable of bringing artistic practices, theoretical reflection and experimentation into dialogue.
The exhibition unfolds within the spaces of the Museo del Ricamo e del Tessile (Valtopina Museum of Embroidery and Textiles), an institution that since 2007 has preserved a permanent collection of approximately four hundred artefacts, including garments, household linen and domestic textiles, documenting Italian material culture from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Within this context, the Biennial takes shape as a research project that brings historical heritage into dialogue with contemporary production, transforming the museum into a space for exchange between tradition and innovation.
The 2026 edition - under the patronage of the Regione Umbria (Umbria Region), Provincia di Perugia (Province of Perugia), CEDRAV, Umbria Ecomusei, Camera di Commercio dell’Umbria (Chamber of Commerce of Umbria), Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, Club UNESCO Foligno and Fonti del Clitunno ODV - also broadens the scope of the project through Biennale OFF, an expanded programme involving the Biblioteca Comunale “Stelvio Sbardella” (“Stelvio Sbardella” Municipal Library) and the Sala Consiliare del Comune di Valtopina (Council Chamber of the Municipality of Valtopina), which respectively host the exhibitions UN TEMPO ALTRO. ESTETICA DELLA LENTEZZA and SOPERCHI ORNAMENTI. The initiative thus extends the exhibition route beyond the museum and engages directly with the urban fabric.
With more than seventy artists represented across the three exhibition venues, this year’s Biennial reaches its broadest scale yet, consolidating an international network built over the course of its three editions and confirming Valtopina as one of Italy’s leading centres for research and exchange in contemporary fiber art, bringing together heritage, artistic production, critical thought and international dialogue.