Live performance for Laura Collezioni: L’amore, amore mio by Nizar Qabbani

A curtain can be a surface to look through, an element that separates and filters, but also a space on which to intervene. This possibility became the starting point for the project created by Marta Lagna for Laura Collezioni on the occasion of Lecce Arredo 2026: a large blush-pink curtain, positioned at the back of the pavilion, becomes the surface on which calligraphy takes shape live.

The chosen text is L’amore, amore mio by Nizar Qabbani, one of the leading poets of contemporary Arabic literature, whose work made love and the figure of woman central themes of his poetic research.

It is a text in which love does not remain an abstract feeling, but changes the perception of the world, transforming everything surrounding the speaker: the earth, the trees, the rain, the light and even writing itself.

This transformation is what makes the poem particularly suited to a textile surface.

Laura Collezioni: fabric as a design element

Laura Collezioni is a Salento-based company specialising in bespoke solutions for residential and commercial interiors. Its work ranges from curtains and textile systems to wallpapers, upholstered elements and outdoor applications, including bioclimatic pergolas and structures designed for exterior spaces. Each project is developed around the proportions, needs and character of the environment.

Here, fabric goes far beyond its decorative function. It can shape natural light, alter the perception of a room and redefine the relationship between interior and exterior. It can become a backdrop, create a sense of separation or introduce a new visual layer within a space.

This understanding of textiles as an active part of interior design provides the starting point for Marta Lagna’s intervention.

Lecce Arredo 2026

Lecce Arredo is an event dedicated to the world of interiors and design, bringing together companies, professionals and industry operators.

For the 2026 edition, Laura Collezioni presents its collections and interior solutions within its pavilion, creating a space in which textiles take centre stage.

At the back of the pavilion, a large blush-pink curtain becomes the focal surface. A single, continuous element, intentionally presented in its entirety. This is where Marta Lagna intervenes with her handwriting.

The curtain is not treated as a neutral support onto which an image will later be applied: the calligraphy is created directly within the space and in front of the audience.

The choice of Nizar Qabbani

L’amore, amore mio describes a feeling capable of transforming perception and the very nature of things.

Qabbani writes about a love that expands into the world: it exists in the moon, the leaves, the feathers of birds and drops of rain. When the poetic speaker falls in love, his own nature changes as well. He feels like “the king of time”, moves through the world with a new sense of power and, above all, transforms into “fluid light.”

This passage becomes particularly significant within the project.

Light is, after all, one of the elements a curtain naturally interacts with. Fabric filters it, softens it and transforms it. The blush-pink surface therefore becomes a kind of luminous field onto which the black of the writing introduces a second dimension: that of the word.

The poem is not simply reproduced on the curtain. Its meaning enters into dialogue with the surface that receives it.

L’amore, amore mio di Nizar Qabbani

L’amore, amore mio,
è una poesia graziosa scritta sulla Luna,
l’amore è disegnato su tutte le foglie degli alberi,
l’amore è inciso
sulle piume dei passeri,
sulle gocce di pioggia.

Quando amo
sento di essere il re del tempo
possiedo la terra e tutto ciò che essa contiene
e cavalco nel sole sul mio cavallo.

Quando amo
mi trasformo in fluida luce
che occhio non vede
e i versi nei miei quaderni
si trasformano in campi di mimosa e papavero.

Quando amo
acqua zampilla dalle mie mani
erba cresce sulla mia lingua
quando amo
sono tempo fuori dal tempo.

Quando amo una donna
tutti gli alberi
corrono scalzi verso di me…

The curtain as a calligraphic surface

During the live performance, Marta Lagna takes calligraphy beyond the dimension of paper.

Working on a large textile surface changes the gesture itself. Scale, posture, body movement and the relationship between hand and mark all shift. A wide vertical surface requires writing to expand, gradually turning the act of writing into a spatial intervention.

Black calligraphy moves across the blush-pink curtain, creating a visual rhythm of words, pauses, density and empty space.

Although the writing retains its handmade character, its function changes. No longer limited to something read at close range, it becomes a presence that can also be perceived from a distance, becoming part of the surrounding environment.

The live performance makes this transformation visible. Rather than simply presenting a finished result, Marta Lagna allows the audience to witness the work taking shape in real time, as the text gradually emerges through the movement of the hand.

A poem becoming a surface

Writing on a curtain also introduces a different relationship between word and space.

A page has a defined, enclosed surface. A curtain, on the other hand, already belongs to domestic architecture: it is a vertical, movable element, crossed by light and directly connected to the surrounding space.

Intervening on it therefore moves calligraphy into a different territory, where the mark is not simply contained by a support but contributes to defining it visually.

In this sense, the project is not only about writing a poem. It is about the possibility of transforming an interior element into a narrative surface.

From public gesture to personal detail

Alongside the large curtain, the project also develops through smaller elements, personalised with names and key words.

It is the same research expressed at a different scale: from the large surface designed to occupy a space to the individual element created for a person.

Writing therefore becomes intimate again. After expanding across the curtain, it contracts into the detail, the name and the chosen word.

This dual scale — monumental and personal — allows calligraphy to run through the entire project without becoming merely a decorative motif.

The live performance as part of the work

The performance is an integral part of the project because it places the time required for writing at the centre of the experience.

Marta Lagna does not apply a pre-defined image: she creates the work in front of the audience, allowing the composition to emerge through the movement of the hand and its relationship with the surface.

The calligraphic gesture therefore also becomes a way of measuring space. Each word occupies a portion of the curtain, each interval creates an empty space, and each variation in the mark changes the overall rhythm.

It is writing that can be seen as it happens.

Word, light and fabric

The project for Laura Collezioni emerges from the precise encounter of three elements: word, fabric and light.

Qabbani’s poem speaks of a transformation that leads the poetic speaker to become “fluid light”. The curtain is, by its very nature, a filter for light. Calligraphy introduces a physical black trace onto the fabric, constructed through the gesture of the hand.

The result is therefore not a decoration applied to a curtain, but a different interpretation of the textile surface: an interior element that can become a support for an artwork, carry a story and actively contribute to the identity of a space.

With this intervention, Marta Lagna once again takes calligraphy beyond the page and places it in dialogue with material, scale and environment. The word finds a new support, while fabric, from a functional element, becomes a surface to be written on.