Museo Nivola presents FACCIO CON LA MENTE / PENSO CON LE MANI at the Tavolara Pavilion

Already ten years ago, this ferment of ideas, objects, and projects received renowned worldwide recognition with the Compasso d’oro ADI—Association for Industrial Design—awarded to the XIX DOMO Biennial of Crafts. It has now entered a new era, one that is more vibrant and concerned with sustainability.

Designers from diverse disciplines (industrial, graphic and fashion design, visual arts, architecture) collaborate with traditional and creative craft practitioners to create collections, special projects, and new productions.

As a result, Sardinia has become a field of innovation at the crossroads of design, craftsmanship, architecture, and art, ranking among the most intriguing in the Italian setting and beyond. From fabrics to wood, metals to pottery, goldsmithing to fashion, the new Sardinian protagonists bring traditional colors, shapes, and materials into the present.

The exhibition reintroduces the public to the Tavolara Pavilion, an architectural jewel designed in 1956 by Ubaldo Badas (1904-1985) to host the shows of ISOLA, the Sardinian Institute for Artisan Work Organization, a venture founded under the direction of designer Eugenio Tavolara (1901-1963) to encourage the renewal of Sardinian craftsmanship through dialogue between artists, designers, and artisans.

In Eugenio Tavolara’s attitude of experimentation and networking, the meeting of projects and physical talents takes place today on a level of sharing, communication, and equitable trade, developing new culture and a new economy.

Making and thinking, skill and design are all aspects of the work of artisans, designers, and makers, who work independently or collaboratively on large projects. Tradition is a starting point, occasionally a destination, but it is never a constraint or an impediment to experimentation.

Sardinia is both a geographical location and, more importantly, a state of mind. Some people have never left. Some have returned to start over. Others have made a new home here or stayed for the sake of the experience. Some people live abroad but carry it within them.

It is a crucial component of comparison, a source of inspiration, or a catalyst for change for everyone.

The intertwining of pathways and experiences forms a network of relationships that spans the Mediterranean, in which the protagonists discover themselves as both local and global, connected to their roots while seeking new directions.

Curated by Giuliana Altea, Antonella Camarda, and Luca Cheri.