LAVINIA at Villa Borghese: sixth edition

Peter Friedl

still onview: Ross Birrell & David Harding, Ruth Ewan, Enzo Cucchi, Piero Golia, Gianni Politi, Monika Sosnowska
curated by Salvatore Lacagnina

Until November 15, 2026, visitors can experience the new project by LAVINIA, the contemporary art programme curated by Salvatore Lacagnina and realised by Ghella, which accompanies the restoration of the Loggia dei Vini in Villa Borghese. The protagonist of the sixth edition is Peter Friedl (Oberneukirchen, Austria, 1960), whose work Last Jest evokes an enigmatic presence, a possible story.

Last Jest recalls the costume of Hop-Frog, the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe’s eponymous tale, the “master of horror.” Hop-Frog, the King’s “dwarf” jester, possesses not only “extraordinary physical strength,” but another, more terrible kind of strength: an imagination capable of conceiving the perfect revenge, a catastrophic reversal of power relations. The final act, the last jest, the ultimate buffoonery.

Peter Friedl’s Last Jest is an open work that operates on multiple levels. It is a work about costume, and about art as a historical document; it evokes without representing, tells a story without necessarily referring to one. It addresses history and the relationships between aesthetics and politics, power and submission. It is undoubtedly connected to theatre – a recurring theme in Friedl’s practice: a theatre reduced to fragments, where action is frozen or impossible.

Promoted by Roma Capitale, Department of Culture, Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, LAVINIA is an art programme named after Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614), one of the first women artists to achieve full recognition in the history of art.
The project develops in parallel with the restoration of the Loggia dei Vini, which began in 2024 and was made possible by a donation from Ghella. The restoration was entrusted to R.O.M.A. Consorzio under the scientific direction of the Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage. Following three years of restoration work, the Loggia is now fully accessible to the public.

Pomegranate and sage is the sixth gelato flavour accompanying LAVINIA’s new exhibition project.

LAVINIA
Loggia dei vini, Villa Borghese
Access from via Pinciana 18
00197 Rome

OPENING TIMES 
Thursday–Friday, 2.00pm–7.00pm
Saturday–Sunday, 11.00am–7.00pm

CONTACT 
laviniaroma.com
info@laviniaroma.com
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Photo credits Daniele Molajoli and Gioele Benedetti