Lecce Design Week 2026: Breakfast at Montinaro Clima 

During Lecce Design Week 2026, Montinaro Clima Store becomes one of the stops along a city-wide programme dedicated to design, comfort and connection.

For the closing event, Marta Lagna brings her research into writing into an unexpected, convivial setting: calligraphy created using coffee as pigment.

A simple, everyday gesture deeply rooted in Italian culture changes function and becomes creative material.

Coffee is used directly to write names and marks on cards prepared for guests. Brush picks up the liquid pigment and transforms it into fluid lettering, with subtle variations, splashes and drops making every composition different.

Result goes beyond simple personalisation: each card becomes a small artwork created live.

Calligraphy as an Experience

Value of the project lies above all in its experiential nature.

Writing is not simply observed as a finished result. It becomes a performance unfolding in front of an audience. Each name is written individually, following the rhythm of the hand and the particular material quality of coffee.

Calligraphic gesture becomes part of the event: a moment of encounter between artist and guest, design and everyday life.

Coffee also introduces a sensory element naturally connected to breakfast. Material used to welcome guests becomes the same material used to create their personal mark.

From Name to Uniqueness

At the centre of the performance is the name.

Writing someone’s name means transforming an element of identity into an image. Every word has its own rhythm, length, shape and visual presence.

Through calligraphy, a name stops being simple information and becomes a unique mark.

This dimension is closely connected to Marta Lagna’s research: writing as a form of identity, memory and connection.

Here, however, calligraphy is not applied to a precious or permanent surface. It emerges from an everyday, temporary material — coffee — gaining a more spontaneous and contemporary character.

Coffee Becomes Pigment

Using coffee as a painting medium means working with a living, irregular substance capable of constantly changing intensity.

Colour emerges from liquid concentration and the amount of material gathered by the brush. Lines can become deeper or lighter, while small drops and splashes create a naturally occurring texture.

Perfect repetition is therefore impossible.

Each card preserves the characteristics of the gesture that created it, becoming a small and unrepeatable composition.

Design, Hospitality and Connection

Project takes place within an event dedicated to design and comfort, but introduces another dimension: connection.

Montinaro Clima chose to close the Lecce Design Week programme with a shared breakfast, together with Valentino Caffè and the travelling exhibition space by Palazzetti.

Within this setting, Marta Lagna’s performance shifts attention from product to person.

Comfort is not only about technology, temperature or performance. It is also about how a space welcomes, connects people and creates opportunities to meet.

Calligraphy becomes a gesture of hospitality: every guest receives something created specifically for them, at the very moment they are welcomed.

Small Object, Meaningful Connection

Power of the project also lies in its scale.

Not a large installation. Not a monumental artwork. Just a precise, personal gesture.

Name written by hand.

Surface crossed by coffee.

Small memory of the event.

Through this intimate dimension, calligraphy transforms a moment of conviviality into a memorable experience.

Coffee becomes ink, name becomes image, breakfast becomes a moment of design.

At the heart of Marta Lagna’s practice is a desire to take calligraphy beyond the page, bringing writing into everyday life and turning words, objects and gestures into forms of artistic expression.