The artwork “Arch, Bridge, Scale, Rainbow of Peace and Work” was created by Maestro Tommaso Cascella (Rome, 1951) as part of an artistic residency program promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute of Nairobi, hosted at the Saint Kizito Vocational Training Institute, on the occasion of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2025.
The project was conceived with the aim of creating a space for international collaboration, training, and intercultural dialogue, in which art becomes a vehicle for exchange, learning, and communication. Saint Kizito VTI is a centre of excellence in the training of young professionals in fields such as carpentry, metalwork, plumbing, computer science, and other technical skills that are fundamental to human and social development.
The artwork — a table/sculpture conceived and entirely created in Nairobi, featuring two tops made of red mahogany and recycled metal — represents a symbolic place of encounter, balance, and sharing. Through its materials, forms, and meanings, the work reflects the idea that art can transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries, becoming a tool of participatory cultural diplomacy.
The table was first exhibited at the Nairobi National Museum and was later presented at the Residence of the Ambassador of Italy to Kenya, where it is now installed, enriching the its artistic heritage.
The Artist
Maestro Tommaso Cascella belongs to one of Italy’s most important artistic families. A painter and sculptor, his research arises from an original fusion between a classical foundation and a deeply contemporary sensibility.
His works are animated by an inner tension — a “lucid madness,” to quote Giovanni Pascoli — and develop through continuous experimentation with materials. Pigments, iron, bronze, stone, cement, paper, and ceramics coexist in his language without hierarchy, as tools of a single poetic investigation.
In the Artist’s Words
“Arch, Bridge, Scale, Rainbow of Peace and Work.
Two worlds, two tables joined by a bridge that is also a balance: justice and brotherhood.
An equilibrium resting on nations themselves, on a table — or tables — that become a place of sharing.
And what could be more human than sharing food, exchanging pizza and spaghetti with ugali and sukuma wiki?”
Read the interview with Maestro Cascella during his residency here.
