Provocative Objects: The Madia

Provocative Objects / Spaces

11 June, 2025 -

The madia is a traditional piece of rural furniture that, for centuries, played a central role in household management, particularly in bread-making and storage. The name derives from the Latin magida, meaning "to knead" or "to work flour"; the origins of this kitchen piece of furniture date back to the Romanesque period.

This wooden artifact, often adorned with decorative carvings and passed down from generation to generation, stands as a witness to women's daily labor and to a material culture centered on wheat and subsistence.

Typically made of walnut, oak, or chestnut wood, the madia was designed to protect its contents from humidity and pests, thus ensuring the preservation of bread for several days. Its construction met specific functional needs and was seamlessly integrated into the broader organization of domestic spaces in European agricultural communities.

Women’s Labor and the Material Culture of Bread
Although it was an essential element of daily life, the madia was also a testament to women's labor, often taken for granted. Women were primarily responsible for bread preparation: selecting the flour, managing fermentation, baking in wood-fired ovens, and distributing the loaves within the household. This role required precise technical skills, which were passed down from mother to daughter, and significant physical effort.

In this context, the madia is not merely a utilitarian object but a meaningful artifact intimately associated with women’s work. It functions simultaneously as a workspace and as a symbol of both the physical demands and the social significance of domestic labor within rural economies.

Beyond its original practical function, the madia gradually acquires symbolic and ritual significance within rural European cultures, as in Italy. On a linguistic level, the madia has also left significant traces in the Italian language: expressions such as “avere la madia piena” (“to have a full madia”) or “mangiare dalla madia” (“to eat from the madia”) reflect the symbolic importance of the furniture as an indicator of prosperity, while simultaneously highlighting how women’s labor often remains invisible or taken for granted.

Traditionally associated with bread-making—bread being both a sacred food and a metaphor for abundance—the madia often becomes the stage for codified gestures passed down from mother to daughter. These gestures, which include kneading the dough and reciting prayers or invocations, serve to emphasize the woman's domestic role.

In summary, the madia emerges as a complex object embodying daily practices, symbolic values, and gender dynamics deeply rooted in rural culture. Its history testifies not only to the centrality of bread in the food tradition but also to the ways in which social and gender relations have been historically constructed and maintained.

The Madia as a Gendered Device
In today’s context - characterized by increasing attention to gender issues within the field of design - the madia emerges as a problematic object, emblematic of an “unresolved dialectic.” Its traditional design, rooted in an uncritical framework that reinforced the division of labor along gender lines, now poses a challenge to the responsibilities of the contemporary designer. As philosopher Judith Butler has argued, gender roles are not fixed essences but performative constructions reiterated over time. The madia, as an artifact historically instrumental to the performativity of domestic femininity, requires critical deconstruction.

Its persistent presence in the collective imagination - often conveyed through nostalgic or aestheticized forms of recovery - risks obscuring the historical and social implications it embodies. Its contemporary redesign raises the issue of reflexivity in design: the designer can no longer adopt a neutral or merely aesthetic stance but must confront the cultural and political meanings embedded in the objects they create or reinterpret.

Therefore, the madia is not simply an object belonging to the past but a device that reflects ongoing tensions between memory, identity, and gender roles. Its contemporary design represents an opportunity for critical engagement that goes beyond mere formal reproduction, addressing the layered historical and symbolic meanings it carries. In this way, the madia can become not only an element of cultural heritage but also a starting point for rethinking design as a reflective and political practice, capable of promoting social transformation and responding to gender-related demands.

References
Giolo, Gianni. 2023. La civiltà contadina: ieri e oggi. Un saggio sulla letteratura veneta. Vicenza: La Vigna.
Manni. Graziano. 1993. Mobili antichi in Emilia Romagna. Modena: Artioli.
Terni de Gregory. W. 1981. Vecchi mobili italiani. Milano: A. Vallardi.
Museo della civiltà contadina Rodolfo e Luigi Sessa, Mirabello, Ferrara, Available at: https://ilmuseodimirabello.com/la-tradizione/i-saperi/colture-e-lavorazioni/la-spartura-la-madia/
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. Routledge.
Treccani. Available at: https://www.treccani.it/vocabo...

Image details
Museo Cervi
Via Fratelli Cervi, 9, Gattatico (RE), Italy
Object category: Furnishings and domestic utensils
Material: Wood
Dimensions: Height 77 cm × Depth 68 cm × Width 126 cm
Date: First half of the 20th century
https://bbcc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/pater/loadcard.do?id_card=133851&force=1 Creative Commons: Attribuzione – Non commerciale – Non opere derivate 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Chiara Rubessi is a PhD in Performing Arts at the UGA Université Grenoble Alpes, France. She is an exhibition designer and lecturer in design history at ISIA Design Florence, ISIA Design Rome, and the Accademia di Brera in Milan. Her research focuses on the transformation of spaces and artifacts, with particular attention to urban environments, heritage (both tangible and intangible), museum spaces, and digital contexts. Through the analysis of spatial organization and composition, she investigates the historical and aesthetic construction of spaces, as well as their interaction with social practices and technologies. Her work also explores the evolution of spatial relationships in connection with ecological transition and social policies, highlighting the central role of maintenance and preservation as essential forms of care for spaces and objects. Find out more: www.chiararubessi.com

https://genderexperts.org/experts/75238-chiara-rubessi/

Started by the DHS Ambassadors in 2022, the Design History Society’s Provocative Objects and Places blog series looks at spaces and objects that challenge and confront us as design historians.

Past topics have ranged from the ancient Colosseum in Rome to the ultramodern Antilia in Mumbai; pink razors and Barbies to Lalique’s Bacchantes vase and nineteenth-century asylum photography. The full collection of previous posts can be found here: https://www.designhistorysociety.org/blog/category/provocative-objects-spaces

We invite submissions for guest blog posts from students, early career researchers, and established academics to those with a general interest in design history. Post can be on any object or place from any era, anywhere in the world, which in some way incites discussion and debate. Post should be 500-800 words in length, accompanied by at least one image with associated credits and clearances, and a short bio.

Please send to the DHS Senior Administrator, Dr Jenna Allsopp designhistorysociety@gmail.com