The exhibition "RomaniContemporaneo" will open on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in the "Sisinnio Usai" room of the Mas.Edu in Sassari. It is the culmination of a project of the same name, promoted by the "Mario Sironi" Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari in close collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara. It will run until November 7th.
The project focused on a dialogue between Sardinia and Tuscany, using the medieval Romanesque style as an artistic language of contact, comparison, and collaboration: the former cathedral of San Pietro di Sorres was identified, today the only Benedictine abbey existing in Sardinia, as well as an example of the Romanesque style directly deriving from similar examples existing in Tuscany, in Pistoia.
San Pietro di Sorres was chosen as the symbolic monument for a study of reinterpretation and reinterpretation of Romanesque art and the history of the site. This will create a set of inspirational subjects for contemporary artworks that will be created by professors Sergio Miali and Giovanni Sanna of the School of Decoration at the Sassari Academy and Giovanni Chiapello and Alberto Semeraro of the Painting Department at the Carrara Academy, as well as by a select number of students from both Academies . Professor Alessandro Ponzeletti, professor of Modern Art History at the Sassari Academy, collaborated on the project.
The project included an initial training phase for teachers and students in the classroom (remotely for the Carrara campus) and on the site of the Sorres Abbey . Dr. Daniele Sorace, a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, provided in-depth study of the unifying decorative elements in the Romanesque style between Tuscany and Sardinia. The second phase involved the design of the works; the third, finally, led to the actual creation of the pieces. A printed catalogue of the works, with accompanying texts, will provide documentary evidence of the exhibition, confirming the collaboration between the two Academies.
The exhibition will see a second, final stage of the project in Carrara, at the Compagnia Grande headquarters, in the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea, from Friday, November 28th until Saturday, December 13th, 2025, sealing the artistic dialogue between the two regions.
The students involved in the project are: Sara Antonaci, Alessio Betti, Selene Bertagnini, Gianluca Caramatti, Luca De Maria, Giulia Luzzi, Elena Nardi, Alessandra Palmerini, Gloria Rustighi, Eirené Silvestri, Giovanni Squassoni for the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara and Antonio Cau, Giommaria Chessa, Alessandra Fiori, Lucia Loria, Giovanni Moretti, Rebecca Angelica Pilloni, Oscar Piras, Francesco Tetti for the Academy of Fine Arts of Sassari.
