Valeria Belli

The Noguchi Museum Shop presents a collection of handwoven works by Valeria Belli (b. 1965), an artist-craftsperson based in Chieti, Italy. 

The works, an assortment of bed carpets (throws), table carpets (runners), and key ornaments, are the latest of Belli’s 25-year practice, which has been dedicated to the woven craft of her native Abruzzo and the culture of transumanza. An ancient custom practiced until recent memory, the transumanza is the twice-yearly shepherded migration of sheep that has shaped Abruzzian economy and culture for millennia, slowly honing its own distinct vocabulary of beliefs, methods, and influences. 

Each work available in the Shop is made of transumanza heritage wool from Gentile di Puglia, Merinizzata, and Sopravissana, three breeds of Merino which Belli diversely manipulates to bring forth different facets of their character. Whenever a dye is employed, it is exclusively natural and often from foraged materials such as artichoke leaves, rose madder, walnut husk, and ivy. Reworking regional techniques and decorative styles, Belli creates personal takes on traditional Abruzzian wares as well as artifacts made through tablet weaving, a millennia-old craft historically used in Europe to embellish the hems of precious garbs. 

Much of Belli’s work is about preserving the intangible: several of the motifs and techniques she employs have been passed down to her orally by still-practicing elders in the villages dotting the ancient transumanza paths. Working from the stone-clad town of Decontra for part of the year, Belli weaves on wooden floor looms dating between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and is often fascinated by elements from archeology, medieval culture, and folk textiles.

By showcasing traces of a fleeting lineage like the transumanza, each Belli piece is a personal interpretation as much as it is diligent record-keeping, a way to inscribe in wool parts of a language that is otherwise in the late stages of vanishing.

The works are available to purchase from The Noguchi Museum Shop. For pricing and availability, inquire at shop@noguchi.org.