MAN_Museo d'Arte della Provincia di Nuoro

ISLANDS AND IDOLS
2025-06-27 - 2025-11-16
curated by Chiara Gatti and Stefano Giuliani, with the contribution of Matteo Meschiari
project developed thanks to the participation of Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Majorca, Musée du Louvre and Fondation Giacometti, Paris

What deep bond connects an island to its simulacra?
And how did the twentieth-century masters travelling between the
Mediterranean and South Seas absorb and interpret them?

The exhibition Islands and Idols, which opens the summer season at the Museo MAN in Nuoro, was conceived to explore these very questions. It seeks to understand how the symbolic and mythical power of archaic figures – preserved within the boundaries of island life – was regenerated, centuries later, in modern artistic forms.
Poised between the Neolithic age and the dawn of the twentieth century, between archaeology and the avant-garde, between Cycladic idols and the wooden sculptures carved by Gauguin during his years in Tahiti, the exhibition traces a journey that flows between past and present. It seeks out echoes, shared sensibilities, ancestral legacies and expressive impulses – forces that resurface in cyclical waves, like geological rhythms – guiding the hands of artists as they endeavour to shape kindred forms. It is not, then, the familiar notion of the traveller who explores, discovers, absorbs and replicates. Rather, it is the more vital idea that the ancient and the modern meet beyond the confines of time and space, both sustained by the same fundamental impulse: to give form to the elsewhere through statues, steles and monoliths that embody the invisible on earth.
Chiara Gatti writes in her text: “No postcolonial revisionism is required to affirm that there is nothing primitive, exotic or unsettling in their hieratic presence. It is abstraction in its purest form. They are mother goddesses – merciful and majestic in equal measure – reminiscent of Egyptian mourners, Etruscan offerers or handmaids lifted from the surfaces of Greek vases. Their gazes, fixed on the void, absorbed in a Casorati-like stillness, evoke the disarmed immobility of Dürer’s Melencolia – an allegory of the human intellect in silent meditation on the fate of the cosmos.”
Taking a critical stance as a reflection on the everyday notions of otherness and primitivism, and their repercussions in the heart of the postcolonial debate that extends well beyond art history, the exhibition explores the anthropological reasons behind the presence of totemic figures within the circumscribed space of the island. It examines how masters of the stature of Gauguin, Pechstein, Miró, Arp and Matisse, during their journeys, reimagined this coexistence by projecting their own sculptural icons into the realm of the sacred.
Beginning with Gauguin’s first “escape” to Brittany in 1886, rooted in the idea of the island as an ideal place, untouched by the excesses of civilization, the exhibition retraces the journeys of artists such as Jean Arp, who collected Cycladic statuettes, drawn to their concentrated magnetism, and Max Pechstein, who in 1914 reached the Palau archipelago. There, on the island of Angaur, he lived among the local communities and depicted male faces with the solemnity of deities. “I saw carved idols in which a trembling mercy and reverent fear of nature’s inscrutable power had etched hope, dread and awe onto faces confronting their inescapable fate.” Joan Miró, in his daily notes, invoked the Moai statues of Easter Island as a potent source of inspiration for new sculptural forms, recognizing in them the embodiment of an ancestral spirit. And then there was Alberto Giacometti, who discovered his own island among the erratic boulders of Maloja, transforming each of his portraits into an idol, a temple guardian, kneeling before the immaterial.
In his text in the catalogue, Matteo Meschiari writes: “The aim here is not so much to examine the sociology, philosophy and geopolitics of being and living on an island, but rather to understand how the geomorphology of Earth and Sea holds fossils of mythical thinking, how the encounter between rock and water serves as a morphogenetic field, one capable of generating myth. The conceptual stereotypes associated with islands act as a dark filter: exclusion, separation, loneliness, shipwreck, entrenchment, prison, exile, confinement – just to name the most prevalent. Yet, as soon as we turn to ocean-centred cultures, such as those of the Vikings or Polynesians, we recognize that the West is entrenched in a geocentric colonial paradigm that consistently privileges land. This continental perspective sustains a hegemonic geographical model where the sea is regarded as empty space. For those who live at sea, however, water is the centre of the world. Their maps depict submerged landscapes and currents, while islands – especially oceanic ones – are small interruptions, areas of suspension within the vast, salty immensity. The archipelago, in this view, becomes a hyper-object, pierced and bound together by the dynamism of the waters, by the very fullness of the sea.”
The selection of more than seventy works includes archaeological finds from Sardinia’s major archaeological museums, the Menhir Museum in Laconi and museums in Brittany, as well as an exceptional loan from the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Alongside these, works by modern masters come from important European collections, including the National Gallery Prague (for Gauguin’s wooden sculptures), the Galleria d’arte moderna in Milan, the Musée départemental Maurice Denis, the Museo della città di Locarno, the Fondation Giacometti and the Archives Henri Matisse, as well as the Florence Henri Archive and Italian private collections such as Diffusione Italia International Group srl and Enrico Sesana’s print collection.
Lastly, a section dedicated to prehistoric Sardinia offers an in-depth look at the world of idols in Sardinia, centred around four main themes: the bull (a male symbol associated with the cult of power and fertility), the Mother Goddess (a female figure linked to birth and the continuity of life), the “upside down figure” (representing the afterlife and ritual reversal), and anthropomorphic menhir statues, true idols carved in stone and destined to dominate the landscape as eternal presences.
The exhibition design, curated by architect Giovanni Maria Filindeu, arranges the works in a spatial composition that evokes an archipelago of small thematic islands. The placement of elements on both walls and floor is shaped by a deliberate and thoughtful use of colour and materials. Display bases are crafted from Celenit, a composite of wood fibre and cement, paired with washed sand, a natural, evocative binder whose cool tones harmonize with the summer palette of textures, sketching out metaphysical maps across the space.

ISLANDS AND IDOLS
Museo MAN, Nuoro – 27 June – 16 November 2025
curated by Chiara Gatti and Stefano Giuliani, with the contribution of Matteo Meschiari

coordination by Rita Moro and Myrtille Montaud
set-up by Giovanni Maria Filindeu
with Giampaolo Scifo, Anna Usai and Bartolomeo Filindeu
graphic image Gianfranco Setzu
catalogue edizioni Interlinea (Italian | English)

Press Office
STUDIO ESSECI – Sergio Campagnolo
Via San Mattia 16, 35121 Padova
Tel. +39.049.663499
contact person Simone Raddi, simone@studioesseci.net
www.studioesseci.net

Minor Islands. Photographic Notes from 1990 to Today
2025-06-27 - 2025-11-16
Curated by Walter Guadagnini and Giangavino Pazzola
Coordinated by Elisabetta Masala

The MAN Museo d’Arte della Provincia di Nuoro and the Galleria Comunale d’Arte di Cagliari are pleased to present Minor Islands. Photographic Notes from 1990 to Today, a major photographic exhibition bringing together sixteen projects by international artists on the theme of representing the island from the beginning of the new century to the present day.
Scheduled to open on 26 June in Cagliari and 27 June in Nuoro, the exhibition project focuses not only on the geographical dimension, but also on the cultural and social aspects of the concept of insularity. It is curated by Walter Guadagnini and Giangavino Pazzola, featuring photographic works by Jacopo Benassi, Paola De Pietri, Charles Freger, Ralph Gibson, Mimmo Jodice, Salvatore Ligios, Bernard Plossu, Marinella Senatore, Giovanna Silva, Massimo Vitali, Lorenzo Vitturi, Vanessa Winship and George Georgeou (in Nuoro); Arianna Arcara, Francois Xavier Gbré, Luca Spano and Karla Hiraldo Voleau (in Cagliari).
Photographed in the past by renowned figures such as August Sander, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lisetta Carmi and many others, Sardinia has largely been interpreted and depicted through a reportage-style lens, with a focus on its landscapes and the communities of its interior regions. These visual accounts have contributed to a social imagery marked by a polarization between the central state and the periphery, shaping representations, myths and ideologies that have, over time, influenced both how islanders perceive themselves and how Sardinia is viewed by outsiders. The stereotypical perception oscillated between an image of Sardinia as a place suspended in time – a kind of Eden – and a contrasting vision tainted by the equally exoticized presence of bandits from crime reports, remote hinterlands and other references associated with underdevelopment.
The exhibition highlights how this representation has evolved over the past twenty-five years, marked by an expanded visual exploration that embraces new ways of engaging with both the territory and its communities. The emerging symbolic and ideological portrayals of the island’s space provide an insight into a range of themes, from cultural histories to the transformation of contemporary society, while also revealing glimpses of persistent subordination. By turning their gaze to the coastline and the sea, as well as to the interiors of the island’s larger urban centres, artists have developed a visual vocabulary of Sardinia that situates it culturally within the broader Mediterranean context, prior even to its placement within the Italian one.
The exhibition opens with a prologue-tribute to four distinguished photographers who, over the years, have devoted significant works to Sardinia, both as part of their own artistic journeys and through their reinterpretations of the island’s landscape. Mimmo Jodice’s marine metaphysics, rooted in Mediterranean culture and captured at Punta Pedrosa (1998) and Molara (1999); Bernard Plossu’s poetic wanderings between Carloforte and La Maddalena (2002); Ralph Gibson’s ironic reimagining of the nude (1986); and Massimo Vitali’s striking documentation of the tourist presence on beaches such as Poetto (1995) collectively introduce the viewer to the exhibition and to a new century.
Divided into monographic rooms, the exhibition at the MAN in Nuoro presents photographers who interpret contemporary life through a range of thematic lenses. These include the enduring role of masks in ancient traditions and rituals, revisited by Salvatore Ligios (2007) to explore questions of identity and the erosion of local culture, and by Charles Fréger (2010–2011); the eternal – and often futile – anticipation of social, cultural and economic renewal, exemplified by the inauguration of architectural structures for the aborted G8 summit in La Maddalena (Giovanna Silva, 2009); and the dialogue between past and present in the Monument to Garibaldi and the granite fortifications on Caprera island (Paola De Pietri, 2022). Practices of interaction and participation between art and community emerge in the exploration of diverse notions of citizenship, as seen in the works of Marinella Senatore (2013), Vanessa Winship and George Georgiou (2014). Meanwhile, Jacopo Benassi (2021) and Lorenzo Vitturi (2022) address the concept of isolation through their respective projects in Donori and Valle della Luna.
At the Cagliari venue, four photographers united by a shared interest in the interplay between photography and literature offer further interpretations and formal articulations of themes such as interpersonal relationships. Their work engages with the narratives of Sergio Atzeni; the previously unpublished project by Arianna Arcara (2025); and Karla Hiraldo Voleau’s exploration of Generation Z, reimagined through the lens of Pasolini’s legacy of Comizi d’amore (2023). Meanwhile, Luca Spano’s world-building (2020–2021), positioned between imagination and documentation, draws inspiration from the literary journey of D. H. Lawrence. The theme of travel and a renewed interpretation of the territory is explored in the work of François-Xavier Gbré, whose images reveal the evolving social and economic landscape shaped by migration and its far-reaching consequences.
The exhibition presents works of extraordinary visual quality and offers new perspectives on familiar places, opening up a range of reflections on the many themes raised by the works on display. It is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue published by Interlinea, containing a dialogue between the two curators, reproductions of the works on display and biographical and critical notes on the artists included in the exhibition project.

Galleria comunale d’arte di Cagliari
Largo Giuseppe Dessì | Viale San Vincenzo 2 – 09123
Tel. +39.070.6776454
Opening times: 10:00 – 20:00
(closed on Mondays)
museicivici@comune.cagliari.it

MAN_Museo d’arte provincia di Nuoro
Via Sebastiano Satta 27 – 08100 Nuoro
Tel. +39.0784.252110
Opening times: 10:00 – 20:00
(closed on Mondays)
info@museoman.it

Press Office
STUDIO ESSECI – Sergio Campagnolo
Via San Mattia 16, 35121 Padova
Tel. +39.049.663499
contact person Simone Raddi, simone@studioesseci.net
www.studioesseci.net

Ilaria Turba. I pani del desiderio
2025-09-19 - 2025-11-02
Curated by Elisabetta Masala

A wish, a dough, a shared work of art.
I pani del desiderio (The Breads of Desire) is a participatory art project born from a simple, universal gesture: making bread. And yet, the loaves of Ilaria Turba are not made only of flour, water, and yeast—they also hold dreams, memories, and shared aspirations. In a time marked by fragmentation and uncertainty, the symbolic and communal value of ritual breads from the Mediterranean is elevated through an artistic and social act, capable of generating empathy and deep listening.
The exhibition Ilaria Turba. I pani del desiderio marks the final stage of a long journey through territories, communities, and desires. After years of encounters and exchanges, the artist shares with the public a reflection on the profound meaning of a collective and transformative experience. The project began in 2018 in the northern neighborhoods of Marseille, where, as an associate artist at the national theatre LE ZEF, Ilaria Turba led a series of workshops with the local community. It was in this context that over one hundred bread-sculptures were created: unique forms made collectively and inspired by the desires of each participant.
Beginning in 2022, I pani del desiderio evolved into a journey across Italy, with each stop involving museums, festivals, local associations, and residents. From Milan to Fontecchio, from Florence to Castiglione delle Stiviere, and finally to the medieval stone village of Ghesc in Piedmont, each location offered an opportunity to regenerate the gesture, activate new dialogues with communities, and create entirely new forms.
The final Italian stop of this traveling project took place in the village of Villaurbana, in the province of Oristano, as part of the Fondazione di Sardegna’s AR/S – Arte Condivisa program. It is in Sardinia—a land deeply rooted in the tradition of ritual bread making—that the project findes its symbolic completion: a return to matter, memory, and the gestures that bring people together. During a collective celebration in the forest of S’Arangiu Aresti, the artist shared the stories behind each of the more than one hundred breads gathered during the journey, before entrusting them to fire in a symbolic act of transformation. As in ancient rituals, their metamorphosis does not signify an end, but rather a passage toward rebirth. The resulting brilliant black ash becomes a symbol of desires that have shed their form and merged with one another. As the artist states in the video accompanying the exhibition, “The shapes that disappear remain in memory, in traces, in the stories that can still be passed on. They have not vanished; they have simply returned to their essence—the same essence from which every desire was born.”
The exhibition I pani del desiderio retraces the entire journey, inviting visitors to symbolically follow the path from Marseille to Sardinia through a selection of works—some of which are being shown for the first time—transforming the museum into a living space of connection, listening, and care. In a present that demands imagination and new forms of closeness and humanity, Ilaria Turba invites us to begin with a simple, universal gesture: to give shape to a desire and share it with others.
Ilaria Turba
The work of visual artist Ilaria Turba (www.ilariaturba.com) unfolds through interdisciplinary, participatory, and relational projects that involve communities, specific groups, and territories—often within complex or challenging contexts. Her practice is rooted in direct exchange with people, incorporating their voices, actions, and stimuli into her creations. These take the form of installations, public art, images, objects, artist’s books, performances, and celebratory moments. Turba’s work is distinguished by its coherence, aesthetic sensibility, and emotional depth, particularly evident in her inclusive processes and the reimagining of the themes she chooses to explore. A recurring element in her practice is dialogue with both private and public archives.
Ilaria Turba was the recipient of the 9th edition of the Italian Council in 2020. Her work has been featured at: Mucem, Marseille; LE ZEF Scène Nationale de Marseille; Manifesta13; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles; Performative, MAXXI L’Aquila; Festival Trajectoires, Nantes; Fondazione Prada; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Brooklyn Children’s Museum, NYC; Museo della Triennale, Milan; Festival Animac, Catalonia; Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Milan; Festival Filosofia, Modena; Festival Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia.
