In Sorrento: the jewelry exhibitions of Roma Jewelry Week and the photography of Oreste Pipolo
From March 21 to May 3, 2026, Villa Fiorentino in Sorrento (located about 20 kilometers from our boutique hotel) will host two different yet complementary exhibitions: “Codice RJW / Memoria Futura“, which offers a journey into the world of contemporary jewelry through art, experimentation, and research; and “Oreste Pipolo Photographer: From Weddings to His Naples“, a visual journey through memory, tradition, and urban landscapes.
Hosted on the ground floor of this stunning location, “Codice RJW / Memoria Futura” celebrates the fifth anniversary of Roma Jewelry Week, an international event promoting and sharing the culture of contemporary, designer, and artisanal jewelry, as well as historic goldsmithing traditions. Curated by architect Monica Cecchini and organized by the Cultural Association InCinque Open Art Monti, it retraces the five editions of the event. The exhibition functions as a living archive, where jewelry becomes, in turn: a connection between artists and the public, a travel notebook and personal memory, an ethical space for experimentation, an exercise in baroque virtuosity, and a symbol of light and spiritual reflection. The display also highlights the networked dimension of Roma Jewelry Week, represented by the Codice RJW, a shared language that has fostered collaborations among artists, designers, and master goldsmiths. During the exhibition, the theme of the sixth edition is also presented, focusing on jewelry as a form of storytelling about Italian art and culture over the last eighty years.
On the first floor of Villa Fiorentino, the exhibition “Oreste Pipolo Photographer: From Weddings to His Naples” is dedicated to Oreste Pipolo (1949–2015), one of the photographers who most effectively captured the essence of Naples in recent times, rightfully called “the Maradona of photographers.” Curated by Chiara Russo and the artist’s daughters, Ivana and Miriam Pipolo, it explores the world of Neapolitan weddings, popular traditions, and the most authentic moments of daily life in Naples, transformed by Pipolo’s lens into powerful visual narratives full of humanity. Through his albums, Pipolo inspired generations of photographers and caught the attention of journalists and filmmakers, who recognized in his work a keen critical eye on city life. In 1998, Matteo Garrone, director of films such as Gomorrah and Io capitano, made the documentary Oreste Pipolo, Wedding Photographer, which inspired Marco Bellocchio’s film The Wedding Director starring Sergio Castellitto. This exhibition thus offers a chance to rediscover the vision of an artist who could turn fragments of everyday life into images conveying the cultural identity of a territory.
VILLA FIORENTINO
Corso Italia 53, Sorrento
For more information:
Tel. +39 081 8782284 | info@fondazionesorrento.it
