“Contemporary Sardinia. Production Archive Spaces” And the third stage of the MAN Museum’s multi-year program “The resistance constant”, dedicated to the study of the most innovative research which, starting from the end of the 1950s, has characterized the regional artistic scene.
The identification of a possible specific connotation, to be recognized within the different experiences, constitutes the backbone of this project. The “Sardinian resistance constant” is in fact a concept with which the archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu tried to express the historic struggle waged by the Sardinian people against the colonial powers that from time to time appeared on the coasts of the island.
The exhibition, curated by Micaela Deiana, presents us with an artistic panorama in which the question of language and its synchrony with official debates is less pressing: the globalized age, the speed of exchange thanks to the web and the ease of physical movements alter the relational dynamics between the center and suburbs.
Starting from these changed conditions, yes proposes a reconstruction of artistic production on the island expanded compared to the research of individual artists and collectives , which also includes the artist-run-space, exhibition centers, galleries and cultural associations who helped shape the local scene. The project thus opens up to all the figures who have inhabited the art system of the last twenty years – artists, curators, critics, gallery owners, collectors and patrons – highlighting relationships and collaborations.
“Contemporary Sardinia” is divided into two levels of investigation , on the one hand the organization of an exhibition with choral curation, on the other the creation of a first archive of visual production in Sardinia in the 2000s.
The exhibition reconstructs the events of the island’s production through the narratives of the individual spaces that have animated the cultural debate of the last fifteen years. Seventeen organizations were invited to participate and each chose the exhibition methods through which to tell their experience, organizing their own exhibition section free from institutional constraints. Thus, a choral and horizontal process of self-determination was triggered, a reflection of the heterogeneity of the proposals and visions carried out in Sardinia in the 2000s.
The project room instead welcomes the archive-library , a study room for anyone who wants to delve deeper into artistic production in Sardinia in the 2000s. An open archive is established, a first implementable fund that launches a survey of the research of individual artists active in this period of time. The first step in a study and research program, the archive aims to be a continuously developing project, capable of photographing the evolution of the island’s artistic reality over time. It is accompanied by a library that collects catalogues, editorial productions and portfolios.
Through “Contemporary Sardinia. Production Archive Spaces” The MAN Museum it’s done open space , research lab in which to experiment with new forms of production and exhibition. On this occasion, the institution presents itself as a network of different experiences brought together in a single place of comparison and production.
The exhibition will be followed by the publication of the volume Contemporary Art in Sardinia (1957-2017) , published by Magonza Editore with the special contribution of Banco di Sardegna. The book, edited by Lorenzo Giusti, Micaela Deiana and Emanuela Manca, collects a rich selection of critical texts on artistic production in Sardinia starting from the end of the 1950s, with chronological reconstructions and thematic insights dedicated to geographical contexts, groups and events. Twelve authors involved in the volume: Sonia Borsato, Antonella Camarda, Simona Campus, Antonello Cuccu, Micaela Deiana, Rita Pamela Ladogana, Emanuela Manca, Emanuelle Mureddu, Giangavino Pazzola, Marta Pettinau, Roberto Sirigu, Luca Vargiu.
They participate in the Sardegna Contemporanea laboratory: Askosarte, blublauerspazioarte, Casa Falconieri, Man Ray Cultural Centre, Cherimus, Bartoli Felter Art Foundation, Capitol Gallery, Giuseppefraugallery, Little Room Gallery, LEM – Modern Aesthetics Laboratory, Madriche, MEME | Upcoming contemporary art / Contemporary Project, Seuna Lab, S’Umbra Visible Paths, Su Palatu Photography, (In)visible Space, Spazio P.
