A Berlin based project on Sardinian cultural heritage. The participating artists were selected by the curator Giusy Sanna with the aim of fostering diversity in artistic practices. Some artists concentrated on geography and natural environment, others worked with tradition and folklore, and some had a more documentary approach.

The magazine. Issue #0
Created by: Giovanni Casu & Giusy Sanna
Design and layout: Giusy Sanna
Powered by Circolo Sardo di Berlino e.V. / Sardisches Kulturzentrum Berlin

This publication contains the results of a on going art project, started in 2010. It is presented to you in form of a magazine. The participating artists were selected with the aim of fostering diversity in artistic practices. For instance, some artists concentrated on geography and natural environment, others worked with tradition and folklore, and some had a more documentary approach. The Holiday Island Residency Program sparked fruitful exchanges between the local and visiting participants on art and the peculiarity of the insular condition. From these exchanges, the idea was formed to run an empirical study of sorts.

Contributors: Nuno Vicente, Stll Veloce, Marisa Benjamim, Alessandro Sau, Giovanni Casu, Ewa Surowiec, Roberto Fanari, Bryn Chainey, Irene Balia, Cristina Meloni, Ambra Pittoni, Carlo Spiga, Paul-Flavien Enriquez-Sarano, E., Rugiada Cadoni, Igor Muroni.

Empirical survey on a Heritage

Seven years after the beginning of all the encounters and projects resulting from “Empirical Survey on a Heritage”, we had the urge to draw up a clear balance and share it with our several potential readers.

The results in words, images and text are the basis of this publication which gathers the works of many collaborators, 20 artists, various associations, four art centres ( the Grimmuseum, Supermarkt Berlin, the Node Center, the Lazzaretto in Cagliari ), three art galleries ( MEME in Cagliari, Joao Cocteau and the Lucas Carrieri Art Gallery in Berlin) from a span of just four years. The project generated six exhibitions, 15 exclusively conceived artworks among installations and performances, two residency programmes for eight artists, two publications, and a remarkable number of websites.

Our project travelled several times between Sardinia and Germany and was seen by thousands of people, from art enthusiasts to art experts. Throughout “Empirical Survey on a Heritage” we display here the different moments of our journey, and we hope that our reader will have the same critical and logical approach we had through case and accident. Finally we hope you will be captivated by the artistic discoveries made visible by this project.

The three experiments connected with Empirical Survey on a Heritage are a playful way to eradicate many of the suppositions and inconsistencies related to our cultural heritage. Identity and cultural heritage are in fact hot topics in this survey, since we are a group of migrant artists and curators dealing daily with these aspects and living in a multicultural, undetermined and multiverse society. This also determinated our curatorial choices. The project has been carried out by Giusy Sanna and myself.

The entire project’s structure is based on a few assumptions accompanying a certain tendency that shows the overuse of scientific criteria in the artistic and philosophical field.

The project’s logic is conceived as a reaction to the fusion of artistic and scientific dialects in conceptual arts; these patterns were also recurring in the emergency of a new scheme for contemporary art. The project “Empirical Survey on a Heritage” is an investigative procedure on a grey area between several disciplines, as Deleuze would say, where artistic and scientific languages and instruments seem to mix and blend.

The scientific method, based on experiments, and the creative processes, strictly connected to art, are here confused.

The curator here acts like a researcher verifying, selecting, investigating and conducting an experiment. The artist becomes the acting instrument of this research. Finally artworks and exhibitions are treated like the results of an experiment, and both are able to validate and invalidate the first assumption. As we see in the subtitle, “Empirical Survey on a Heritage” could be defined as a cultural experiment focusing on Sardinian culture and identity, using contemporary art as an instrument and Sardinia and Berlin as a laboratory or play-field.

Special thanks to Grimmuseum, Node Center for Curatorial Studies – Berlin, Lazzaretto Cagliari, MEME | arte contemporanea e prossima, Supermarkt, Claudia Lamas Cornejo, Paolo Carta, Andrzej Raszyk, Stefano Urani, Perla, Montelongo, Giuliana Altea, Fausto Ferrara, Pierpaolo Cicalo, Alexandra Porcu, Francesca Sassu, Pro Loco Samatzai, Comune di Samatzai, Istituto Fernando Santi, Fondazione per l’arte Bartoli Felter.

During the event: Live act by Makika (Carlo Spiga) & Stll Veloce Veloce