The artistic residence, ISCHELIU / RICIAMO, was dedicated to writing the diary of one's own Heritage travel.
Ten participants were selected, seven of whom were Sardinian descendants (children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of Sardinians but not born in Sardinia) and three Sardinian-native emigrated artists. The group was the guest of a week-long residency in the small abandoned village of Rebeccu in the Municipality of Bonorva. In this context, an immersive and articulated experience was shared with the guest artists of the project, who continued their research during this period of residence, also creating opportunities for public sharing and open studios. We are talking about artists from various disciplines, also Sardinian or with strong ties to the island, whose curriculum is characterized by an international and highly prestigious career path: Antonio Marras, multifaceted artist and designer; Valentina Medda, visual and performative artist; Daniela Cattivelli musician and composer that collaborated with Maurizio Saiu for AminAnima(Soul); Luciano Chessa, an internationally renowned composer who lives between the USA and Europe; Adele Madau, musician and performer; Lea Karen Gramsdorff visual artist and actress and Simone Dulcis artist and sound designer.
Different origins, approaches, and visions have contributed to the enrichment of a concept found in the chosen place, the ideal humus to re-elaborate the relationship between man and the environment as a starting point for listening to the call toward own roots.
The campus
From the beginning, Francesca Lixi, the campus tutor, tried to give importance to the creation of the group. The heterogeneity of its composition required care, attention, and listening to what everyone expected and what she thought she could do and give.
This phase was followed by the proposal to experiment with an approach with the place through the five senses (the sensory doors) to discover which purpose takes over in each one in the contact/connection with what the physical, natural, and relational place offers in the here and now, and what sense everyone prefers to tell their own vision.
Sharing this experience was very interesting and gave rise to first individual and then collective brainstorming, which brought to light themes, visions, memories, personal stories, feelings, and emotions.
The emergence of the themes through the words chosen by the group created the basis for daring the direction of a collective work. The working group matured quickly thanks not only to the hours dedicated to work for the artistic residence but also to the sharing of recreational spaces and the participation in the creative process of the other guest artists of the residence.
A crucial moment was the one dedicated to the excursion to Padria and Torralba with Luciano Chessa, his "itinerary of the roots," which led the working group to a moment of very high sharing, important for refining and deepening knowledge and trust among the participants.
Although the time available for collective work was less, it was surprising how, right from the start, the group could sift and filter the contents each participant could share. Moreover, it became clear that the language to convey the experience would be cinematic. At first, some expressed a preference for individual work, which we took into account in the chat on the reasons that supported this preference. Still, the speed with which the group amalgamated revealed the ability to produce shared work.
It could have been more evident that ten people from different countries and experiences could blend so quickly. The principle of "different bodies, one mind" was influential in facilitating what seemed impossible: united in the only desire to express the sensations that this experience offered through images, the willingness to face a collective, univocal work emerged. We worked harmoniously on the contents and audio and video aspects, with total availability aimed at creating a career that contained all the voices, thoughts, and notes of this ten-hand diary.
The editing of the text, sounds, and images went through two stages: viewing and listening to the materials collected on the one hand and drafting a collectively set assembly lineup on the other. A harmonious work masterfully coordinated by Francesca Lixi and organized with the help of Francesco Pupillo, the assistant editor who followed the work step by step and made it possible - also from a technical point of view - to finalize the work. "Ischeliu" was a unique opportunity, an experiment that led us to even more essential and enriching results.
Valeria Orani
“Ischeliu” designer and curator
P.S. It's not up to me to say whether the outcome of the work has any artistic validity, that certainly wasn't the goal, but without any doubt, I can say that it has a significant value from the point of view of the creation of a collective work, in which all the participants, most of whom are artists already trained and with great experience, were able to make themselves available to a group with generosity and with a lot of courage.