ARTISANS
Arcangelo Bungaro — Identity and Matter

From Puglia to Paris, jewellery as a bridge between memory, contemporaneity and international vision.

Words by Daniela Chionna

Arcangelo Bungaro is a jewellery designer, artist, and sculptor of precious metals. Originally from Puglia, trained in Milan and now based in Paris, he has collaborated with major international brands. His creations have been featured in leading fashion magazines, and he has been awarded the title of Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere, a biennial recognition dedicated to Italian excellence.

He lives in Paris but frequently returns to Puglia, not far from Ostuni, to his home — a cultural container devoted to refined hospitality — where he welcomes the works of Italian and international artists. It is there that the past meets the present.

1. When did you discover your passion for the art of jewellery?

I have always felt the need to find a path capable of channeling my curiosity for forms and my attention to detail. My education began with ceramics and graphic design, before moving toward fashion and communication after relocating to Milan.

In the 1990s, I observed with great interest the world of sculptural jewellery, which was experimenting with innovative materials alongside ancestral forms. I began creating my first jewellery sculptures by combining natural elements with transparent nylon threads. The interest shown by the media encouraged me to continue a research journey that felt deeply personal.

2. How much did Milan contribute to your development?

I arrived there very young, in a city full of stimulation. Milan was able to recognize a potential that perhaps I had not yet fully seen in myself. I moved within fertile artistic environments, exchanging ideas with designers and creatives who greatly influenced me.

But my roots were always in Puglia. I never gave up that identity. Milan gave me tools, method, and an international vision; Puglia gave me soul.

Puglia is not nostalgia. It is primordial energy. It is stratification. It is Magna Graecia, a crossroads of civilizations. And this idea of passage and transformation is central to my work.

3. You have often spoken about your grandfather Arcangelo and his ability to weave metal wires while repairing terracotta vessels. How deeply do your roots live within you, and what is your relationship with tradition?

Exactly, I was thinking of him when reflecting on my roots. I have always been fascinated by the world around me, by the gestures of rituals, by stories that opened worlds where everything was possible through imagination. In him, I found my first master as a child.

I loved standing beside him and imitating the slow gestures of his remarkable craftsmanship while he told stories and anecdotes rooted in tradition. From him I learned to respect substance beyond form, restoration beyond waste, and even today to observe everything from different perspectives in order to grasp as much meaning and knowledge as possible from every gesture.

4. “A man’s fortune lies in meeting another man,” says an ancient proverb. Which encounters have been the most fortunate in your artistic journey?

Over the past thirty years I have had many opportunities and many meaningful encounters. Marta Marzotto and Paola Comolli in jewellery design; collaborations with Hugo Boss, Parah, and Dolce & Gabbana for fashion shows; editors and journalists from the leading magazines in the sector.

My long collaboration with Breil, creating transformable multi-wear steel jewellery, gave me access to a very broad audience. Every encounter represented a step toward greater awareness and personal growth before professional growth.

5. Which artists have inspired you?

I am inspired by those who change the language. Those who make a sudden shift within a familiar context. Art is a tool for evolution.

I am interested in artists who experiment, including the youngest ones, even those who have not yet received universal recognition. Applied art, like jewellery, is not decoration: it is thought translated into matter.

6. What is jewellery to you?

It can be many things: ornament, cultural symbol, status, investment.

For me today, it is a message. An object that first speaks to the person wearing it, and only afterwards to others.

When I create a jewel, I hope my intention is perceived by the person who chooses it. But then the object evolves together with that person and becomes charged with their own experiences. That is where its true life begins.

7. What are you currently working on, and what are your future projects?

Trascendence – made of History is a jewellery collection born from the desire not simply to replicate the ancient, but to enter into dialogue with it. I asked myself: how can an ancient object speak and communicate today?

The answer was Transcendence. Not reproduction. Not quotation. But transforming essence into a contemporary language.

After many years spent between Milan and France, I began dividing my time between Paris and my Puglia. Reconnecting with my roots reignited my curiosity toward Magna Graecia.

Thanks to the collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MArTA), I was able to closely observe the gold treasures of Taranto, study their construction, understand the refinement of their techniques, but also the strength of materials such as terracotta and bronze applied to jewellery of that era.

I spent a year studying and researching. Then I began designing a contemporary collection that would resemble who I am today. I worked using the links of ancient chains, with gilded bronze, introducing porcelain in collaboration with the Atelier Eugène Griotte in Paris.

I use 3D design technologies, but the finishing is entirely handcrafted according to the classical techniques of high jewellery. For me, technology and manual craftsmanship are not opposites: they are continuity.

This is how Trascendence – made of History was born: a collection addressed to a cross-generational audience interested in objects with a strong cultural identity. It is not a quotation of the ancient world, but its evolution.

“Love Transcends” is not a slogan: it is a declaration. Love, like Culture, moves through time.

As for the future, alongside the further development of the collection, I am preparing a series of sculptures inspired by the same world of Magna Graecia, which I hope to exhibit soon in Puglia, in order to tell a renewed and contemporary story beginning from one’s own roots.

A museum is not only a place of conservation; it is a place of responsibility.
When I study an artefact, I feel the weight of time, but also its vitality and the trace of the person who created it.

My work is a form of contemporary réédition: I do not replicate the object, but reactivate its symbolic energy. Every jewel is produced in limited editions or as a unique piece. This is because I believe in the aura of the object.

A jewel must possess a soul. If it can be replicated infinitely, it loses its tension.

8. Who is the woman who best embodies your creations?

I do not have an ideal woman in mind.

What moves me much more is a woman who looks at herself in the mirror and recognizes herself in the jewel she is wearing, rather than the spotlight itself.

This is why, in my communication, I choose different faces, different ages, and different identities. Jewellery should be an open and personal space, not a label.

9. What advice would you give to young people wishing to become jewellery designers?

Study the past. Deeply.

We live in a fast and superficial era, where everything has a short lifespan. To develop a true vision, depth is essential.

Study ancient jewellery, understand its techniques, and then experiment as much as possible until you find your own stylistic language. Only then can you aspire to create something that truly moves people.

10. You often speak about “Contemporary Origin”. What does it mean to you to make origin something alive today, especially for young designers, rather than simply a memory of the past?

Origin is not a fixed point in the past. It is not nostalgia, nor emotional archaeology. It is an active and identity-defining force that drives every development in one’s life.

When I return to Puglia, I do not try to reconstruct what once was, but rather to understand what it can still become.

Making origin contemporary means taking responsibility for transforming it.

Not replicating an ancient form, but understanding its structure, its thought, its symbolic tension, and finding its meaning within today’s language.

Origin is precious matter.
It is a message that evolves.
It is memory pulsating through everyday life.

My work is born precisely there: at the point where the past ceases to be memory and becomes possibility.

The Art of Timeless Jewellery
ARCANGELO BUNGARO

With Transcendence, jewellery designer Arcangelo Bungaro draws inspiration from 4th-century Greece and from the legacy of the Greek goldsmiths who settled in Taranto, in Puglia.

Bronze meets porcelain in original creations that are both powerful and refined. Made in France and Italy, the Transcendence collection holds a secret… its elements can be detached in an instant and transformed in shape, material or colour throughout the seasons.

With over 30 years of experience in design and fashion, the designer creates jewellery with a unique character. The Milo ring, sculptural and innovative, captures every gaze. The Leda earrings, chic and sophisticated, instantly enhance a silhouette.

Bold statement pieces, delivered with a certificate of authenticity.