Luca Bombassei
Studio

Art Residences

According to Giorgio Agamben, contemporaneity is that singular relationship with one’s own time that adheres to it and, at the same time, distances itself from it, since its horizon is the future. Palaces and residences of art and design that have proliferated in Puglia in recent years function as outposts of contemporaneity in a land rich in past and tradition.

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IX. MASSERIA MORICE GRANDE:
Amidst the watermelon and olive groves of Nardò, Luca Bombassei found his buen retiro in Puglia in an old fortified masseria dating back to the 16th-century: «I was looking for a suitable space to host friends, artists, and above all works of art, when I found this structure with enormous potential immersed in the Salento countryside», says architect, designer and collector, who is originally from the region of Lombardy. The state of preservation of the complex was disfigured by collapses, brutal remodeling and reinforced concrete superfetations: Bombassei intervened with a meticulous work of subtraction and recovery that went on for over three years. «In the logic of the renovation, the possibility of putting the artworks in dialogue with the masseria was crucial: the placement of the pieces in the space is indeed instinctive, as always happens to me, but at the same time responds to the rationality required by the specificity of the place». Masseria Morice Grande’s creative and innovative energy has not remained confined to its perimeter, but is expanding, generating a dense and fruitful dialogue with the cultural institutions of the territory.