Polytropon

The Team

Claudio Cantella
Claudio Cantella
President

Graduated in Architecture from the University of Florence, he has been practicing as an independent architect since 1976, working across the fields of urban planning, architectural design, and product design. His professional activity has taken place in Italy, the United States, and France. He has taught at the Pratt Institute in New York and at the School of Architecture, University of Trondheim, and has been invited to give numerous lectures at universities and art academies in Europe and abroad. In the 1980s, together with Vittorio Giorgini, Paul Heyer, John Johansen, and several artists from Andy Warhol’s circle, he founded in New York the movement NAJS – No Art Just Sign, exploring the boundaries between architecture, art, and semiotics. He currently chairs the cultural associations M.I.C.RO. and NAJS – No Art Just Sign. Since 2025, he has served as President of Polytropon.


Maria Papadaki Badanjak
Maria Papadaki Badanjak
Founder of Polytropon

Architect educated at the University of Florence (Italy), with international experience in architectural design. She founded ARK Construction in Greece, where she designed homes and offices, and is the founder of Polytropon — a platform dedicated to research, design, and cross-disciplinary dialogue spanning art, wellness, and performance. She promotes curatorial initiatives that explore the intersection of visual and performing arts through community engagement.


Andrea Cavallari
Andrea Cavallari
Artistic Director

Andrea Cavallari is an Italian-American composer and visual artist whose work inhabits the space between sound and vision. He studied piano, composition, ethnomusicology, and conducting, earning a master’s with Franco Donatoni. His work blends music and art in immersive experiences. He has worked with Klangforum Wien, London Sinfonietta, and many others, and collaborated with Uffizi, Pecci Museum, Palazzo Strozzi, etc. He is currently composer in residence at Kammeroper Frankfurt.


Valeria D’Ambrosio
Valeria D’Ambrosio
Gallery Manager

Art historian and contemporary art curator, her research mainly focuses on the valorization of cultural heritage, museum collections, and historical archives. She has worked as an assistant curator in international museums, galleries, and archives, including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, Pace Gallery in Beijing, and the Archives Jean Painlevé in Paris. Since 2018, she has collaborated with the Natural History Museum of Florence as a curator, focusing on the valorization of the permanent scientific collections through contemporary art, technological innovation, audience development, and engagement practices. Recently, she has been a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Florence, where she curated a two-year project connecting physics, astrophysics, the history of science, and contemporary art, aimed at valorizing Villa Galileo — the 17th-century house where Galileo Galilei spent the last eleven years of his life under house arrest following his condemnation by the Holy Office. Alongside her institutional roles in public and private cultural organizations, she pursues an independent curatorial practice focused on the intersections between art, science, and ecology.