RAFFAELA NALDI ROSSANO Support Structure for Antro della Sibilla: To hold your dreams

Support Structure for Antro della Sibilla: To hold your dreams indicates a cavity, an entry point often placed in antiquity at the entrance of sacred sites. Such was the case in the Cave of Sybil in Cuma, home to one of antiquity’s most famous prophetesses, the Cumaean Sybil. With this spatial intervention, Raffaela Naldi Rossano creates an oracle portal between Durrës and Cuma, both significant Mediterranean sites. The work mirrors protective structures recently introduced at the Antro, addressing the vulnerability of historical sites. Ancient traditions of sanctuary and healing are reintroduced within the contemporary port context.  

A four-sided wooden arch framework, stripped of ornamentation, forms the installation’s core. Inside, a large mattress filled with organic materials like flowers and leaves spans the space, evoking the ancient practice of sleeping in sacred places for therapeutic restoration. The work seeks to create an atemporal space, activated through the presence of readings, and performances taking place within it as part of the festival.

Raffaela Naldi Rossano

Raffaela Naldi Rossano (b. 1990) is an Italian artist working across sculpture, moving images, sound, and poetry. Her site-specific installations create in-between spaces that foster new psychological and socio-political connections, viewing bodies, objects, and spaces as layered containers of time and energy. Her work has been exhibited at institutions like Sharjah Biennale 2025, Villa Medici in Rome, Madre Museum in Naples, and the 2020 Art Quadriennale in Rome.

In 2017, she founded Residency 80121 in her grandmother’s former apartment in Naples, transforming it into a platform for radical hospitality and interdisciplinary exchange. Her practice explores memory, identity, and the tension between personal and collective histories. By blending archival research with sensorial experiences, she reimagines relationships between past and present, self and community. Through her immersive installations, Naldi Rossano invites audiences to engage with the evolving narratives embedded in spaces and materials.