Tommaso Cascella. SORRISO ETRUSCO
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Opening 4 july at 6.30PM
4 july– 13 september 2026
curated by Lorenzo Fiorucci
Tarquinia renews its commitment to promoting culture and contemporary art with the 3rd Premio Città di Tarquinia "Luciano Marziano", an award dedicated to art criticism and established by the Società Tarquiniense d’Arte e Storia (STAS) to honor the memory of one of Italy’s foremost scholars of contemporary ceramics.
The 2026 edition carries particular significance as it marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Luciano Marziano (1929–2016), art historian and critic, a pupil of Giulio Carlo Argan, and a key figure in the recognition of ceramics as a fully established language within contemporary art.
The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, July 4, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia, a symbolic venue that embodies the city's rich cultural heritage and extraordinary historical legacy. On this occasion, the jury will present the selection process that led to the choice of the winner of the third edition of the award.
The event will also mark the opening of the solo exhibition by Tommaso Cascella, a member of the jury and one of the leading figures of contemporary Italian art, entitled SORRISO ETRUSCO, curated by Lorenzo Fiorucci. The exhibition will be open to the public from July 4 to September 13, 2026, across the spaces of the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia and the Museum of Ceramics at Palazzo dei Priori.
The initiative aims to strengthen the bond between the city and its artistic vocation, a tradition rooted in Tarquinia's millennia-old history that today finds new perspectives through the dialogue between archaeological heritage and contemporary artistic research.
Tarquinia's history is deeply intertwined with the visual arts. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004 for its celebrated painted Etruscan tombs, and currently shortlisted to become Italian Capital of Culture 2028, the city is one of the Mediterranean's most important cultural centers. In recent years, STAS has promoted numerous initiatives designed to enhance this identity by encouraging dialogue between tradition and contemporary culture. This path also led to Tarquinia joining the Italian Association of Cities of Ceramics (AiCC) in 2022, alongside historic ceramic centers such as Faenza, Deruta, Gubbio, and Caltagirone.
The award was established to honor the legacy of Luciano Marziano, an art critic, historian, and intellectual who devoted much of his career to promoting Italian contemporary ceramics. After moving to Tarquinia following a long career in public administration and cultural institutions, Marziano played a decisive role in fostering the local artistic debate and promoting the area's ceramic production. His innovative vision found its fullest expression in his later writings on the potential of ceramics as a language of contemporary art, texts that are now regarded as essential references for scholars and professionals in the field.
The inaugural exhibition will feature Tommaso Cascella, artist, sculptor, painter, and printmaker, one of the leading figures of contemporary Italian art and the incoming President of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca. Sorriso Etrusco stems from Cascella's profound personal and artistic connection with the land of Etruria and with Etrusculudens, the creative workshop founded by Sebastián Matta in Tarquinia, one of the most significant artistic experiments of the second half of the twentieth century. For Marziano, Etrusculudens—an initiative he studied extensively and was among the first to place within a historical framework—represented a cultural and social undertaking of remarkable importance, capable of bringing together art, craftsmanship, individual creativity, and community spirit. Its aim was to renew the language of traditional ceramics while liberating the creative potential of local artisans, allowing their manual skills to be guided by free and imaginative thought.
Through a rhapsodic exhibition design, Lorenzo Fiorucci and Tommaso Cascella have placed the artist's works in dialogue with the museum's archaeological collections, creating a path of resonances and contrasts in which both ancient and contemporary works are continuously reinterpreted. Cascella reflects on the Etruscan heritage as a living source of inspiration and as a model of an artistic vision capable of combining beauty, memory, and contemporaneity. "Tarquinia was the place of my artistic education, alongside a master such as Sebastián Matta and through his Etrusculudens. That Etruscan smile remains, even today, a necessary gesture within contemporary Mediterranean art," the artist states.
An additional section of the exhibition will be presented at the STAS Museum – Museum of Everyday Ceramics in Corneto, located in Palazzo dei Priori, where visitors will encounter an original dialogue between historical examples of Tarquinia's traditional ceramic objects and Cascella's contemporary reinterpretations. As Lorenzo Fiorucci explains, "In Cascella, the 'Etruscan smile' becomes a metaphor for a profoundly human form of knowledge: an intelligence shaped by memory, hands, and imagination, capable of transcending time and transforming every creative act into shared knowledge. Over the centuries this knowledge becomes tradition, yet it constantly requires renewal in order to preserve its vitality."
The previous editions of the award have demonstrated how culture and art can serve as strategic tools for enhancing the territory, encouraging new forms of cultural tourism and strengthening Tarquinia's national profile. Through the Luciano Marziano Award and the exhibition Sorriso Etrusco, STAS seeks to reinforce the city's role as a leading center for contemporary culture, building upon the artistic tradition that has long distinguished the area.
Tommaso Cascella
Tommaso Cascella was born in Rome in 1951 to the painter Annamaria Cesarini Sforza and the sculptor Pietro Cascella. From an early age, he painted in the studios of his father and his uncle Andrea Cascella. After completing secondary school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture, where he studied for several years.
In 1973 he founded the Etrusculudens fine art print workshop, working closely with Sebastián Matta. Together with his first wife, Emma Politi, he was also actively involved in publishing. After the workshop closed in 1981, he established Cervo Volante Editions, launching an art and poetry journal directed by Edoardo Sanguineti and Achille Bonito Oliva. He continues his publishing activity today through new Cervo Volante publications produced in collaboration with artists and poets.
To date, Cascella has held approximately 130 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 400 group exhibitions. His works are included in numerous museum collections and private collections in Italy and abroad.
Information
Opening:Saturday, July 4, 2026 – 6:30 p.m.
Exhibition dates:July 4 – September 13, 2026
Opening hours:
National Archaeological Museum: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Museum of Ceramics: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Venues
National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia Museum of Ceramics, Palazzo dei Priori
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