Exma Cagliari: the exhibition-installation by Maria Joel Serreli
The Exma in Cagliari will be showing the exhibition-installation “A casa mia avevo tre sedie” by artist Maria Joel Serreli. The exhibition is curated by art historian Simona Campus, art director of the municipal art centre in via San Lucifero.
Exma Cagliari and the Teatro Lirico are symbols of the cultural scene of the ancient city Casteddu. From the 11th of July until the 11th of October 2020 Exma will host the exhibition A casa mia avevo tre sedie by artists Maria Joel Serreli.
The exhibition is a reproduction of three rooms of the artist’s studio/home in the province of Oristano, a house which Serreli inherited from a dear great-aunt who was like a second mother to the artists.
A multi-disciplinary artist (painter, sculptor, fibre artist and performer), Maria Serreli was born in Rome in 1975 from Sardinian parents and was initially self-taught in drawing and clay modelling before she also began painting and sculpting. Her first personal show was in Arborea in 1999, a municipality in the province of Oristano.
In 2004 she received a qualification as a ceramist at the C.R.F.P institute of Oristano and began experimenting with various materials such as basalt, jute and clay. She is mainly inspired by two Sardinian artists: sculptor Francesco Ciusa and Maria Lai, author of Legarsi alla montagna considered the first work of art connected to relations at an international level.
In 2009 the installation tribute to the female figure Statue d’Animo took part, out of contest, in the XII international symposium of Sculture su Pietre in Friuli Venezia Giulia in Vergnacco (UD) and also the International symposium su Pietra Trachite in Fordongianus (OR).
One year later the artist won the “Workshop, laboratori creativi in rete” scholarship, an artist residence in San Sperate at the International School of Sculpture where she met sculptor Giuseppe Sciola known as Pinuccio who she remembers dearly as her master.
During the following years, Serreli took part in many important exhibitions in Italy and abroad: “Trash-art” at the University of Pisa, the “Premio Adrenalina-La Nuova Era tra Simbolismo e Tecnologia” and the “Premio Adrenalina 2014, Il mio Paradiso” both at the Macro Testaccio in Rome, “Odds and Sods” at the glamorous ArtMooreHouse in London followed by various experiences connected to international art exhibitions on human rights “HUMAN RIGHTS?”.
She has already exhibited at Exma with a piece during the collective show “Pani e Madri, la Forza generatrice dell’Arte” in 2015. That same year she was a guest at the “Residenza artística Cosenza 2015” and founded The Art House Space in Marrubiu, a project of home-atelier to which is tribute the exhibition A Casa Mia avevo tre sedie.
The exhibition connects the artists past with her present with original works created with objects from her great-aunt’s house including furniture, furnishings and fabrics.
The exhibition is a succession of environment-installations and each room hosts a different nucleus of works which tell the story behind the artistic research of Maria Joel Serreli. Her roots and memory become a way to relate with the world while the objects describe a poetic vision of smaller things giving way to dialogue with nature and elements belonging to the Sardinian landscape.
The exhibition will include a new nucleus of works recently created by the artist during a cultural exchange with China which has never been shown before.
Exma Cagliari: from being the slaughterhouse to multifunctional space
Perhaps not everyone knows that before it became one of the most important exhibition centres of the Sardinian capital, Exma Cagliari was the town’s slaughterhouse. It was built during the second half of the 19th century and was active until 1966 until replaced by the more modern one in via Po.
The structure originally had a large court with a central block, four corner buildings – two of which were then demolished, and a gigantic open-air water tank. Still today, in the main block along with the outside fencing and above the external entrance, are some cow proteomes meaning the oxen heads which were typical decorative elements in ancient art.
After a long process of restoration in 1993, the building was redeveloped and used as a structure dedicated to art and culture.
The splendid multipurpose centre hosts temporary exhibitions, shows and manifestations, it has more or less 650 prints belonging to the Nicola Valle collection donated to the local administration by Valle heirs in 1977, works made by some of the most important Sardinian and Italian artists of the 20th century including Foiso Fois, Giuseppe Biasi, Stanis Dessy and Mario Delitalia.
Since 2015 the building has been the base of EXMA – Exhibiting and Moving Arts project curated by the Consorzio Camù which has experience in the management of cultural spaces and exposure of their value and communication.
The Exma Cagliari’s mission is to promote contemporary art with an interdisciplinary and multicultural view.
Exma Cagliari: how to get there, opening hours of the exhibition and tickets
The EXMA in Cagliari is in via San Lucifero 71 in Villanova, one of the historical districts of Cagliari and can be easily reached in various ways:
- On foot from piazza Matteotti
- By bus line CTM1 (stop in Via Sonnino/Piazza Gramsci), M (stop in Via Sonnino/Piazza Gramsci), or line 30 and 31 (stop in via Dante front Tribunale Minorile/San Saturnino)
- Terminating station Metro Cagliari (light surface metro to and from the hinterland) in Piazza Repubblica (5 min. On foot from EXMA)
It’s possible to visit the exhibition A casa mia avevo tre sedie by Maria Jole Serreli from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 13.00 and from 17.00 to 21.00.
Tickets can be purchased by email by writing to the address exma@consorziocamu.it or by telephoning this number 070 666399.
The full price of the ticket is 5 €, for over 65, students with document, schools and groups of minimum 10 people the price is reduced to 3 € per person. For children under 7 and disabled people, entry is free of charge.
