Malles in Florence: Sejnane ceramics at Galleria Bunker

On March 8, 2026, one hundred ceramics from Sejnane found their place in the center of Florence, inside the Galleria Bunker in Via San Gallo.

The exhibition Malles – Shaping Stories, presented on International Women's Day, connected two distant realities: a Florentine space dedicated to research between art and architecture and the work of women who, in northern Tunisia, continue to shape clay using techniques passed down through generations.

Not just a simple exhibition of ceramics, therefore, but the story of a community, a territory, and knowledge that continues to live through hands.

From Sejnane to Florence

Sejnane is located in northern Tunisia, in a rural area where ceramic production has historically been entrusted to women. The technique is learned by observing mothers, grandmothers, and other artisans in the community.

In 2018, the knowledge related to women's ceramics in Sejnane was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The Florentine exhibition brought these objects out of their original context without erasing their origin. Inside the Galleria Bunker, the organic forms, irregular surfaces, and fire marks dialogued with the essential architecture of the space.

The contrast did not make the ceramics alien. On the contrary, it allowed for a better observation of their volumes, chromatic variations, and the traces left by manual processing.

How Sejnane Ceramics Are Made

Traditional processing takes place without a potter's wheel. The clay is collected locally, prepared, and shaped entirely by hand, gradually building walls and volumes.

Surfaces can be smoothed, incised, or decorated with natural pigments. Firing takes place outdoors, in contact with wood, smoke, and earth. It is precisely this phase that produces many of the dark shades, burnishing, and variations that distinguish one piece from another.

The final form is never perfectly predictable. The behavior of the clay, the fire, and the gestures of the artisan make each pot or bowl different even when it belongs to the same family of objects.

Knowledge preserved by women

Sejnane ceramics are not born from industrial production. It is a domestic and community activity, passed down mainly through direct experience.

Artisans learn to recognize the consistency of the clay, control the thickness of the walls, and manage a firing process that also depends on the wind, humidity, and available fuel.

In the pieces selected for the Malles project, the work of the individual woman remains recognizable. Each object retains small asymmetries, imprints, and differences that tell the story of who made it.

To view these works merely as decorative accessories would be reductive. Their production contributes to the income of the artisans and the continuity of a practice that belongs to the social and cultural history of Sejnane.

The Malles – Shaping Stories project

Malles works with the artisans of Sejnane to introduce this tradition into new contexts, keeping the origin of the objects and the work of the women who produce them central.

The name Shaping Stories summarizes the meaning of the project: shaping forms also means transmitting stories. Each pot carries with it a process, an origin, and a human relationship that precede its entry into a home or exhibition space.

The collaboration with Galleria Bunker allowed for the presentation of the ceramics as contemporary works without separating them from the technique and the territory from which they originate.

From the exhibition to the Vicode collection

Vicode exclusively offers the Malles x Vicode collection online. The selection includes hand-made vases, bowls, and sculptural forms, varying in dimensions, surfaces, and material presence.

Photographs and individual item descriptions allow for observation of color variations, but it is important to remember that irregularities, modeling marks, and firing differences are inherent to the nature of these ceramics.

What the Florence exhibition left behind

The exhibition on March 8 allowed for the observation of Sejnane ceramics from a different perspective. Not as ethnographic objects stuck in the past, but as forms capable of relating to contemporary architecture and interiors.

The strength of these pieces lies precisely in their physical presence: living surfaces, imperfect profiles, and tones produced by direct contact with fire.

Bringing a Malles ceramic into a home means introducing an object that is not created to follow a trend. It comes from a territory, from practical knowledge, and from the precise hand of a woman.

Elena & Lorenzo — Vicode