by Maurita Cardone
Translation
The Sardinian curator living in New York created a project which brings Sardinian artists to New York for a residence period, for a journey marked by exchange and culture.
Sometimes it is by going away that one finds attachment. This is what often happens to expats who, after leaving their homeland, find that they belong to her; and it is in this way that a desire, a need to bring something back, to give back to our motherland some of the love we took when we left, is born. It happened to theater organizer and curator Valeria Orani, born and raised in Cagliari and, since 2014, living in New York. In two decades worth of cultural projects, Orani had never dedicated any initiative to her motherland, but, in 2019, she launched Amina, an idea which creates a flux which comes and goes from Sardinia to New York (and vice versa) through art and culture, and which includes coming and going in its name as well. Amina, which translates to soul in Sardinian, is a project which brings together artists and motherland to create value through culture.
SARDINIA-NEW YORK ROUND TRIP. “AMINA” BY VALERIA ORANI
”Living abroad, I discovered a stronger bond with my motherland: my New York life has enhanced my Sardinian identity” recalls Orani. “So I started viewing identity as an elastic which brings you to where you are from the more you pull away. The word identity is, at the same, a controversial one though. I looked it up on the Sardinian dictionary and I found out it doesn’t exist except for as a translation of the Italian word. This made me realize that this concept does not exist in our heritage. It is a term referring to one’s roots, but one which was not necessary at that time. So I looked for a Sardinian word with a similar meaning, and this is how I got to the word ‘amina’ only to find that, looking at it in a mirror, it was its Italian counterpart”. A word in Sardinian at the beginning, and in Italian at the end: perfect to talk about the movement Valeria Orani wanted to see in the Sardinian artists who became part of the project. “Starting from the contradiction of identity made by being far away”, Orani says, “I was interested in understanding what is left of this identity once an artist comes up with something outside of their motherland, but nevertheless taking inspiration from something coming from that same motherland”. From this came the idea of tracking down the Cagliari-born curator Fabio Acca, and to give him the task of selecting the artists who were going to go far away and then go back, and to bring stylist and artist Antonio Marras on board as well. Orani already worked with Marras, and she defined him as “an extraordinary example of this idea, since he has worked so much out of Sardinia, but Sardinia remains inside his entire production”. Last May, Marras’ first play was scheduled at the La MaMa theater in New York. However, coronavirus came about: the play was postponed indefinitely, and it will need to be reimagined taking into account the possible future restrictions on public performances.
AMINA’S ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE IN NEW YORK
In the Fall of 2019, however, the three artists chosen by Acca had already spent time researching and residing in New York: it was the time when they had to go far away, in which New York was stimulus and contemporary. The three residences should have then gone into the screening of a performative and artistic result, to be made in Sardinia. The final project should have taken place in Fall 2020 and it would have included live performances. The current emergency and the social distancing rules have forced the curators to rethink this part of the project as well. “At the moment, the idea of an in-person event is not excluded. We will have to see how things go” Orani explained, “but for now we decided to dedicate a short documentary to each of the three experiences, to include both the research conducted in New York and the giving back to Sardinia”. The first artist flying to New York, last September, was the musician and choreographer Maurizio Saiu, who spent a month in the city working on a project titled There is still a little light in my sky, inspired by Maria Lai an her embroidered books. Saiu, who knew the Sardinian artist and used to work with her, started from conversations and reflections made with her, and in her home, now home to the Maria Lai Archives, will resume his artistic residence as soon as possible. It was then Alessandro Carboni’s turn, visual artist and performer, who worked on Contèxt-Ere, a reflection on the idea of weaving and loom as models of a cosmic mind, in relation to visual arts, cartography-making processes and scenic space. The artist puts the modular structures of Sardinian textile production with the elementary units of American minimalism into dialogue, developing a performative practice based on the handling of wool and geometrical shapes. Finally, last December, it was Cristian Chironi’s turn, an artist whose work stems from an interest for traditional Sardinian constructions, such as the Domus de Janas and the Nuraghi, and ends with Le Corbusier and Tadao Ando. His New York project, Image & Imagination, is a new take on traditional Sardinian housing through the study of more recent materials and techniques, with a special attention to the urban context and its vertical architecture, signs and billboards. In conclusion of the residence period, each of the artists was the protagonist of a public event in which they recounted the art and their work, and they shared their artistic journey.
AMINA ARTISTS IN NEW YORK, THEIR RETURN TO SARDINIA AND CORONAVIRUS
Forced to a comprehensive reorganization, now the going back phase begins. The current uncertainty gives us the chance to deepen a reflection which was, from the very beginning, one of the foundations of Amina: how to develop a relationship with Sardinia which goes beyond seasonal tourism and is able to establish synergies between the territory and culture to create experiences. Limitations to movement offer the opportunity to begin a more direct dialogue, maybe even an exclusive one, with the local communities to which the project wants to bring the results of the work done in New York. Valeria Orani calls them “restitution actions” which started off as open performances for an international audience, but will probably end up being done in front of a much more local audience and through a video. The process is still developing.
AMINA: RECOUNTING SARDINIAN CULTURE TO THE WORLD
The desire to recount Sardinian culture to the world remains, as a result, the last step of the project will be bringing to Sardinia a groups of international buyers and influencers who are interested in knowing the island, its traditions and culture under a light which is different than that bringing thousands of tourists to its beautiful Mediterranean beaches. The moment chosen for this trip is carnival, when the Barbagia becomes animated by Dionysian rituals of ancient origins. “The idea is promoting Sardinia through its identity” says Orani, “and show its ancestral nature. We want to achieve this through a way of traveling which is that of the artist. An idea which might be summed up in the slogan ‘travel as an artist’, which is a concept that can be applied to other places other than Sardinia”. Cultural tourism which puts forth the research and wonder of discovery even in one’s own home, which gains new relevance now that international travel is restricted. Orani concludes: “this crisis is confirmation that the intuition inspiring this project presents itself as urgency now, the journey seen as immersion in different customs and culture, or even the re-discovery of one’s own motherland as proximity tourism, are the basis from which we can restart. We can even expand the concept of cultural and experience tourism, which are necessary for the contamination of all arts, including the art of hospitality”. We will learn to travel again, and maybe art will be our guide.