In Flux, In Time. The Artists‘ House Villa Romana 1905-2025

This volume retraces one hundred and twenty years of Villa Romana, one of Europe’s longest-running and most historically significant artist residencies. Founded in 1905 by Max Klinger, Villa Romana is a German cultural institution based in Florence that has supported artistic production and hosted recipients of the Villa Romana Prize for over a century. Through critical essays, archival materials, documents, and images gathered during a three-year research project conducted in collaboration with the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Humanities, the volume engages with the history of this artists’ house - one that has functioned as a laboratory of experimentation, a space of cohabitation, and a site of encounter across generations and diverse cultural contexts. Moving between historical genealogy and critical reflection, the book traces the transformations of Villa Romana as an institution firmly rooted in its history yet open to artistic practices emerging from multiple horizons, in constant dialogue with Florence and its cultural fabric. More than a celebration, the volume offers a reflection on the role of artist residencies today: porous spaces where the domestic and the political intersect, and where history is not preserved as something static, but lived, renegotiated, and reactivated in the present.