Ecomuseum of Salt and the Sea

“SACCOlibero” is a work of Installation/enviromental Art created within the Laboratory of Travelling Environmental Art (LAAI), designed by Antonella De Nisco and Giorgio Teggi, two artists who have long been engaged in artistic practices in places, towns, natural areas and marginal spaces within gardens, schools and museums with installations promoting civic engagement, relating to the collective, emotional and subjective memory. SACCOlibero was originally intended as as a visible and accessibile metaphor of Cervia’s urban landscape and natural environment and is inspired by the work of salt producers’ wives who used worn-out jute sacks to bag salt: the installation is also meant to be a monument dedicated to those women and their strength, bringing to light their central role. The artwork was made through a truly collaborative lab, where citizens were called to participate and collaborate in braiding and mending the large sack, starting from a semi-finished product previously prepared by the artist.

That creative activity was aimed at exploring new forms of collective use of space as “poetic maintenance” of places through:

– creating woven/braided natural architectures that can have an affective, symbolic and evocative value;

– living for few hours places for listening, envisaging objects, reflecting on the provisional and temporary nature of things;

– preserving natural landscapes by semipermanent or removable actions/objects;

– staying close, living together by experiencing the place through narrative-significant points, coming into contact, organizing a place;

–  art for creating social relationships that could be employed in other contexts or/and able to have repercussions where there has been sharing of experiences and dialogue with the personal experience of each participant.

The installation has been included in the first edition of TERRENA, Land Art paths in Bassa Romagna, the festival entirely devoted to works acting on natural landscape.

“I tell you one thing” has focussed on the themes of fisheries and sea. Over 100 objects have been put on display, thanks to the contribution of the whole community that was also tasked with setting up the spaces of the museum. The main theme of the exhibition was the sea narrative in all its forms, including that of fishermen which for centuries has brought joys and sorrows, the sea of citizens in their perennial ambivalence between the bustle of summer and quiet life in winter, the sea seen as sun and beach by Cervia’s numerous tourists. Each single object, recorded in a specific catalogue, is now recognised as a museum item and as common heritage. Each participant is invited to take care of it and make it available again to the community in similar contexts,  when the need arises.