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History & Fun Facts

The Secrets
of Ulassai

4 curiosities and stories

01

Legarsi alla Montagna: the art that united a village

In 1981 Maria Lai created «Legarsi alla Montagna» (Tying to the Mountain), considered the first work of relational art in Italy. A kilometres-long blue satin ribbon was woven between the doors and windows of every house in the village, symbolically binding the entire community to the mountain that towers above it. The event involved all the inhabitants as co-authors, anticipating by decades the participatory art practices now widespread throughout the world.

02

The Stazione dell'Arte: a museum without walls

The Stazione dell'Arte is not a traditional museum: it was born in the former railway station and expands through the streets of the village with permanent installations by Maria Lai and artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Joseph Kosuth and Mario Merz. Ulassai thus becomes a work of art in itself, a village-museum where every corner tells a story. The initiative was launched by Lai herself in 1996 and continues to be enriched with new artistic contributions.

03

Maria Lai and textiles: when the loom becomes poetry

Maria Lai drew deep inspiration from the weaving tradition of Ulassai, transforming looms, threads and knots into instruments of poetic narrative. In her works the thread is a metaphor for human bonds, writing, and memory. The Sardinian loom technique — handed down from generation to generation by the women of the village — merges in her research with semiotics, Nuragic mythology and childhood play, creating an entirely original visual language.

04

The Tacchi d'Ogliastra: cathedrals of stone

The Tacchi are isolated limestone plateaus that emerge from the valley like enormous pillars eroded by time, remnants of an ancient seabed dating back to the Mesozoic era. The one at Ulassai is among the most imposing: its vertical walls, up to 400 metres high, have become a playground for the world's finest climbers, with over 300 routes of every difficulty level. The spectacular geology of these places also underlies the formation of the Grotta Su Marmuri, carved by water through the heart of the limestone.

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