A stone thrown into a pond creates concentric waves, involving in their motion, at different distances and with different effects, a water lily and a barrel, a paper boat and a fisherman’s float. Objects that used to stay each on their own, in their place and in their sleep, are now as recalled to life, forced to react, to enter into relationship with each other.
(Gianni Rodari, “Grammar of Fantasy”, chapter two, p. 25).
Metaphorically speaking, the stone represents the element, in this case the heart, love, and passion for art, which in a single movement has awakened, in the memory of a journey, curiosity and imagination towards a material called cork, the memory of a people and its deepest meanings; elements that, in their interaction and synergy, have touched and simultaneously highlighted two of the most important contemporary social themes: women’s rights and equal opportunities, recycling and the art of recycling.
The cork sculpture dress interacts and connects with the identifying aspects, socially and culturally speaking, of the Sardinian subregion, the Barbagia, and concretely reclaims those territorial spaces, those rituals from which, and for some time, it has been excluded or relegated to the sole abstract presence.
Femininity, intended as a sculptural work, initially developed in the famous murals of Orgosolo, which yesterday represented a denunciation, a social and political memory, today a collective and popular art. In Mamoiada, on the other hand, the female dress captures the details of the clothing of the protagonists of its carnival, the Mamuthones and Issohadores, and transports them to the sacredness of Sant’Antonio Abate, its fire and pig, and to the paganism of the mythological Dionysus, the mask, and the Bacchanalia. The journey ends in Fonni and in the Nuragic civilization, between the architecture of the nuraghe and the tomb of the Giants, in an attempt to restore the lost contact between earth and heaven in their symbolic and cosmic value. Architectural elements take on the shape and appearance of the body to revive that female figure capable of generating and bringing everything back to its origins.
The topics covered touch on the concept of clothing and its transformation in the artistic field, focusing on the choice of recyclable materials as expressive elements and observations of the surrounding world. From the avant-garde of the 20th century to the art of recycling in the new millennium, through the use of a precious material such as cork, the sculpture dress conforms to new European directives and new projects presented by non-profit organizations or important companies, in full respect of the environment and the health of human beings.
