Maria Lai: Art in public spaces

Mostra , Sardegna

“ games are kid’s art,
art is the game of adults”

– Maria Lai

from I Libretti Murati in Ulassai

During the summer of 2018 I got a commission to provide part of the pictures for the catalogue and the exhibition “MARIA LAI ART IN PUBLIC SPACE”, a once in a lifetime opportunity to closely meet the art of my illustrious fellow countrywoman, during a tour that would have taken me to all corners of Sardinia.

The theme of Art in public spaces (town squares and piazzas, old towns, churches, libraries and school buildings), evaluates the relationship between Artwork and environment, in a balance between the object and the space that contains it, a verb that Maria Lai used extensively, of which I researched a photographic version.

100% of my photoshoots for this work were done in natural light, even in interiors, letting it define volumes and depths. Whenever possible, I used human figures to give the sense of scale of the Artworks.

I really loved this project, discovering as I proceeded the vastity of Maria Lai’s work, that from the threads of its Artworks constantly suggests an approach to life in which Art is a game, but also reflexion and nourishment for the spirit. As Frank Zappa said, a life with music (hence a life without Art in general) is just a sequence of duties and taxes to pay.