A multiscreen video-installation to  present the magic of Sardinian contemporary craft
 

A multiscreen video-installation to present the magic of Sardinian contemporary craft

April 2017
 

squares

neo~local design

 

The multi-screen installation by the Alghero’s AnimazioneDesign lab brings an original interpretation of Sardinia’s artistic contemporary craft to the public of Milan’s Design Week.

 
 

In order to present Sardinian’s contemporary craft production within the exhibition Past Future, craft design in Sardinia, hosted at the Triennale during Milan’s Design Week, the AnimazioneDesign lab of the Alghero School of Design has developed a video installation whose aim is either to present an overview of this production to the public of Milan’s Design Week, and to intepret it, linking it with the complex connections between Sardinia, its traditions and its environment.

The installation interplays with the artifacts that form the collection - masterly photographed by Pierluigi Dessì – to display its variety and beauty, but also to emphasize that, in the work of every craftsman active in his own territory, the traits of the tradition and the spirit of place play a major role, something that has been true in this region for millennia.

In this frame, the storyline we devised for the exhibit displays the continuous interaction between the creativity and personality of each individual craftsman and the powerful energy of the Sardinia’s iconographic tradition. Our interpretation of this fertile and continuous exchange has taken the form of a lively stream of geometric elements that lightly ’cross' the storyline supplying the collection with creative energy. The same energy that is deeply rooted in Sardinia’s mother earth and in the deep spirituality of this ancient island.

Either the story and our visual interpretation directly refer to powerful elements of Sardinia’s ancient history. The Janas (fairies who inhabit the Domus de Janas so common throughout the island), which appear to play with the contemporary craft artifacts, but also the spirits of pagan traditions - of which archaic Sardinia is literally crawling - that we visit in our story by symbolical immersions into the earth's depths.



While offering a meaningful selection of the state of the art of Sardinian’s artistic craftsmanship, the visual game we have devised to present this exchange - which in the Past Future exposition takes the form of a multi-screen video installation - aims at highlight the bridge that, in a place like Sardinia, inevitably connects tradition and creativity, highlighting its relationships with design.

Frames from the project and two views of the Triennale installation

 

AnimazioneDesign laboratory

concept and supervision: Nicolò Ceccarelli
animation: Sabrina Melis, Massimo Pinna
iconographic research: Roberta Soliveras
archive pictures: Confinivisivi, Pierluigi Dessi

music:
Tommaso Leddi. Federico Sanesi - percussions, Franco Parravicini - electric bass

The exhibit Past Future, craft design in Sardinia was curated by Roberta Morittu and Giuliana Altea

The Sardinia Dingbats we animated in the project are by Stefano Asili

 

 

 

Nicolò Ceccarelli

Associate Professor, Alghero School of Design

 

Associate Professor in Design at the Alghero Department of Architecture, Design and Planning. Over the years he has oriented his research work towards the interactions between design and digital technology, exploring various research fields such as 3D modeling and design visualization, heritage valorization, the exploration of new languages for making information accessible, through visual design. In 2013 he organized and hosted the first edition of the international design conference 2CO_COmmunicating Complexity. More recently, in his research laboratory ‘animazionedesign’, he started exploring ways to develop a design approach aware of the local dimension, working abroad, in Morocco and Palestine, and in Sardinia, with a major research project at the 2015 Expo, a project about the dissemination of his University's historic scientific museum, and a multimedia installation for the PastFuture exhibit at Milan's Triennale.

After organizating and chairing the second edition of the international design conference 2CO_COmmunicating Complexity, Tenerife, Canary islands, Spain, November 2017, Nicolò is currently engaged in a new exciting project about visualizing the 'Statuti Sassaresi' a codex from the beginning of the 14th century

 
Ceccarelli