Landworks Sardinia

Held from May 8th to May 18th, 2011 in Parco Geominerario, Storico e Ambientale della Sardegna, the largest abandoned mining area of Sardinia (over 20kmq), between Montevecchio Piscinas, in the province of Cagliari, and recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site. Organized by Stefan Tischer, on behalf of the Faculty of Architecture of Alghero and local governments and the municipalities of Guspini e Arbus, the festival intends to renew the tradition of the famous festivals des Jardins, in a similiar fashion of those of Chaumont-sur-Loire in France and Metis in Canada.

The idea was to create in a short period of time – during the month of May 2011 – between the works of land art and garbage, which nature gradually takes up and cover them, turning the art into "the subject of landscape". The labor-intensive approach of the festival was based on a wide participation of a number of qualified landscape architects, assisted by international students, researchers and practitioners of the place, including former miners themselves. This has borught the creation of a series of site-specific installations created with local materials, components and parts of decommissioned once basic survival gear in the mines, such as scrap metal, stone and wood, but also natural elements, part of the lush Mediterranean vegetation, vivid expression of the natural local levels.

That is how, at the end of May this year, Martin Rein Cano (Topotek), Marc Pouzol (Atelier Le Balto), Stefan Bernard (Bernard + Sattler), Henri Bava (Agence Ter) and Roberto Zancan, Christian Phongphit (SoA + D) , Thilo Folkerts (100 Land) have made more than twenty works scattered across the four sites in Levante:

1. at the former Rio mine
2. around the former Washery Sanna inside the village of Ingurtos
3. along the former Mining Village close to the inert landfill "Pireddu"
4. near the picturesque ruins of the Washery Bressey

The staging, in constant dialogue with the scenarios, once upon a time part of excellence in the field of technology and knowledge of mining, is functional to attract interest of artists and landscapists. A process aimed to transform this place as a new element in the Italian art lanscape, a new piece of the collection of the Italian art-park such as Arte Sella, in Trentino, Cells Park, near Pistoia, or the Garden of Spoerri, near Seggiano.

The colonnade consists of 28 cylindrical steel parts, which characterizes the installation staged at the former Rio mine in the Levante Yard in the charming village of Montevecchio. The structure has been realized through those remnants that were once parts of the mine's ventilation system. It is a tribute to the memory and sense of the place. The installation appears as out of scale and it conveys in the outdoor those dim lights and subtle sounds of the underground life of the past. At the same time the structure become a new land mark for locals and visitors using construction of partially destroyed and abandoned buildings, still waiting to be restored.

Similarly, in a perfect harmony with the general concept of "the ephemeral and performative", the main philosophy of Landworks, eight gardens, sculpture, and small 1x1 meter square, composed of sand, stone, wood and native vegetation – all materials, included original wrecked artifacts found in the neighborhood of the former Washery Sanna, lie in the park, beautifully. Those elements changes with the changing seasons. Colors, scents and compositional structures mutate reflecting the fleeting transience of the element that finds its fulfillment through the passage of time and the effects of weather and Nature. The rooms that are no longer covered with roof, but covered with native vegetation found in the former workers's village of Ingurtosu. In such a way that the artist creates a dialogue between present and past in search of a possible future for these places, once lived and suffered by many generation of operai.

Through combination of inert and living matter, such as logs of wood burned premises, carpet mastic, broom and pine cones, pottery shards and aggregates of various sizes are rearranged along with the various elements, once important parts of gear essential to work in the mines, take place so patiently and diligently sorted by artist's work, wanting to be an archive open to users during the year that run through the lands and artifacts, crystallized in space and time, in the lush setting of the Park. And finally, the last structure tat he end of the Valley, represented by a set of stone elements, carefully retrieved and processed on site to compose linear element parallel to the Rio Piscinas. The artifact is in fact a large seat for a pleasant stay, to meditate and observe the wonderful natural landscape along the river and towards the town of Piscinas At the same time,this is a dramatic view to the monumental Pireddu inert landfill, creating new hybrid surreal landscape, covered by amazing invasive vegetation of red sedum. Annacaterina Piras