Caterina Frongia

Caterina Frongia’s story is one of renewed attention to process and a conscious revival of craftsmanship. Born in Oristano and now based in Bologna, Caterina is the daughter of artisanal tradition: her mother is a weaver who passed on the textile techniques of their hometown, Samugheo. Among these, the “pibiones” technique—literally “grape seeds,” or grain weaving—has become central to her creative vocabulary. Caterina chose to embrace this technique because it speaks a language she understands deeply. Its soft, raised texture offers a tactile richness that lends itself to symbolic and geometric expression, while allowing her to integrate unexpected elements from outside the world of weaving. The result is a distinctly three-dimensional presence.
Traditionally used for carpets, Caterina has reimagined this technique for the wall, emphasizing its sculptural quality and the play of shadow created by its raised patterns.

Through her work, Caterina Frongia encourages us to consider the past as part of the present—to live it as a constant contemporary, fostering coexistence between tradition and modernity.
When she observes ancient arts, she often finds herself struck by the modernity of the figures she sees. “They were already modern!” she remarks. The same happens when she looks at prehistoric Sardinian art or the earliest weaving patterns: they serve as a visual education, a timeless presence we should always keep in view.

The symbols she employs are mostly universal and have existed for centuries: the diamond shape symbolizing birth, or the upward-pointing triangle, a sign of life across many cultures.
What she loves most is discovering, in ancient weavings, how distant civilizations might have influenced one another—and how essential it is today to encourage this kind of cultural exchange. In doing so, she restores to the carpet and tapestry their historically nomadic character: a medium that travels, connects, and evolves.

Caterina Frongia is drawn to every possible alphabet—anything that can be written or read. Braille is one of them. Before being an aesthetic feature, it is a social message: a call for attention, inclusion, and the triumph of communication through alternative ways of seeing.
It is a tribute to absence, to fear, to fragility. 

Her entire body of work engages with vision—with the act of seeing and reading.
To Caterina, the loom may well be the oldest typewriter in the world. The pattern woven into the tapestry is, for her, a form of writing.