In her tale "Maledizione" (Curse; published this year in Italian, still untranslated in English at the time of writing this post), Sardinian author Bianca Pitzorno tells the story of a revengeful woman.
This lady is jealous of her beautiful maid Vittoria Palmas who has attracted the attention of a wealthy foreign man nicknamed by the locals "Gadoni". The young man asks for Vittoria's hand and the envious lady commissions a dowry set for her maid that includes among the kitchen linens also a small tablecloth with a motif designed by the lady herself.
Remedia, the young embroiderer who should work on this piece can't read, so she doesn't realise that the letters form a curse with the power of instantly kill the newly-weds. The young and enthusiastic embroiderer, though, decides to make some additions to the tablecloth that looks unadorned to her eyes. She loves nature and animals and creates on the tablecloth a wonderful natural scene that will have some very unexpected effects on the couple and on the lady as well.
The mysterious tablecloth with the cursing spell, the starting point for this tale, actually exists: it is preserved in the ethnographic section of the Sassari-based Giovanni Antonio National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography and it was chosen by Alghero-born fashion designer Antonio Marras to become part of an exhibition he recently curated.
This museum features in its collection a variety of archeological remains and artefacts, but also a rich ethnographic section with costumes, textiles, wood and ceramic objects donated by private collectors such as Gavino Clemente, a member of a famous family of cabinetmakers and a collector of traditional pieces.
The traditional Sardinian costumes preserved at the museum, dating between the late 1800s and the second half of the 1900s, document the attires of the islands, but in particular of the northern and central parts of this Italian region.
The tablecloth that fascinated Pitzorno, embroidered around the 19th century in Barbagia, Sardinia, is an extremely rare piece. The author translated in her tale the curse in Italian, but also included in the book a representation of the embroidered words with the original message (in the local dialect) of the malevolent spell (scanned and featured in this post) invoking consuming flames, agony and pain on the unfortunate victims.
While this is a mysterious and disturbing artefact, there are other fascinating pieces featured in the event curated by Marras, entitled "Sulle tracce di Clemente" (On the Trail of Clemente; until 18th June 2022), and organized in the museum section dedicated to Gavino Clemente.
The event is conceived as a dialogue between archaeology, traditions, music and literature and opens with an installation featuring female figures in a fantasy attire.
These figures, wearing traditional skirts layered one upon the other, raised on their shoulders to form a shawl or covering the traditional baskets piled up on their heads, represent the janas, legendary fairies from Sardinian tales, but they also hint at the layered cultures of Sardinia and at the possibility of combining different influences and inspirations to create juxtapositions, comparisons and parallelisms and generate an entirely new hybrid identity.
Fashion and traditional costume fans will rejoice at the richness of the pieces on display also in other sections of the exhibition: immaculate white shirts with brocaded or intricately embroidered bustiers take indeed centre stage among amphorae and cercamic pieces from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages.
Some of their floral or geometrical patterns are echoed in the decorative motifs of the finely pleated skirts incorporating brocaded fabrics or embroidered elements, on display on the walls of the museum.
The shirts (sa camisa), bustiers (su cossu) and skirts (sa gunnedda) are key elements of the Sardinian costume, but also staples in Marras' collections and installations. The designer has always been fascinated by layered styles that symbolise the Mediterranean, Phoenician, Byzantine, Arab. Catalan, Spanish and French influences (clear in the rich variety of the local costumes...) on Sardinian culture.
Accessories and in particular silver headdresses, embroidered silk satin hats and jewellery - from necklaces and filigree brooches to silver and coral rosary beads - complete this exhibition that could be considered as a unique mix of ethnography, fashion and literature as well.
Some of the artefacts are indeed accompanied by a QR code that allows visitors to read tales by Bianca Pitzorno, Antonella Anedda, Flavio Soriga, Marcello Fois, Francesco Abate and Elvira Serra inspired by the pieces on display.
The words of their stories and the threads of the pieces included in the event hint at the act of weaving and at spinning a good yarn as well.
This initiative of matching the tales with the objects proves an excellent idea as it is a way for visitors to bring back home with them not just a souvenir from the museum shop, but a short tale that will fill their hearts and feed their minds (you actually wonder why more famous museums who boast of organising blockbuster exhibitions do not adopt this idea of combining literature with their events or even a fashion exhibition with an anthology of commissioned stories...).
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