Homage to Tuvixeddu: preserving the memory of a unique place

An evening (tomorrow, 8 pm) in the Citadel of Museums of Cagliari with thoughts turned to the nearby Phoenician-Punic necropolis. “Homage to Tuvixeddu”, the event organized by the National Museums, is a new stage of the project “La musa Euterpe” which since 2023 has given life to over thirty events in places of culture. A concert interspersed with classical readings with artists such as Gavino Murgia, Lia Careddu, Elena Ledda, Mauro Palmas, Marcello Peghin, Federico Fiorio and Karalis Antiqua Ensemble, Simone Pittau and the Chamber Orchestra of Sardinia, Gianfranco Meloni.

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Euterpe, muse of music and poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, guardian of memory, is the natural patron of museums and places of culture. The National Museums of Cagliari preserve relics from the long history of music: a small bronze depicting a character playing a wind instrument, ancestor of the launeddas; the sarcophagus of the Nereids (3rd century), from the eastern necropolis of Cagliari, a compendium of musical instruments. The memory of the musician Tigellio is alive, whose residence popular imagination wanted in the domus of Campo Viale (Via Tigellio). Nearby, Gemiliano Deidda, in the 18th century, discovered the mosaic depicting Orpheus (4th century), today in the Royal Museums of Turin. The identity of Sardinia, since ancient times, has also been its music and its musicians.

The muse Euterpe nei luoghi della memoria ritrovata, activated in 2023 thanks to a call for autonomous museums of the Directorate General for Entertainment of the Ministry of Culture, has given life to over 30 concerts creating connections between performing arts and places of culture, and involving groups and individual artists in an intense dialectic between experimentation and tradition. The project has rediscovered the former Royal Museum in Piazza Indipendenza, reopened to the public after thirty years; the Cittadella dei Musei, the Archaeological Museum and the Art Gallery, finally, reconnected and with a single entrance; the Teatro dell'Arco. Places of culture, finally, acted as public places; democratically, accessible to collective use. The project continued, in the following years, thanks to the generosity of many artists who performed pro bono publico. This is why the National Museums have decided to follow up on the constructive and generative relationships, activated especially with associative subjects that work for the public good and with artists who have joined the Homage to Tuvixeddu, pro bono publico. Sharing as a concrete positive action that produces multiplier effects in favor of the community and the guests present in the city. The Homage to Tuvixeddu, cultivated and shared with those who have joined, will be held in the Citadel of Museums that Giovanni Lilliu dreamed could become a place of culture and peace, where the millenary memory of Sardinia could be preserved.

Tomorrow evening is one of the stages to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the foundation of the National Museums of Cagliari; the heart of the history of the city, of Sardinia, of the Mediterranean. Today much loved by the regional community and beyond. Because love for a person, as for a place, is evident not from announcements but from practices. This is why we thought of Tuvixeddu, a place much unloved by decision makers, given its current conditions. The National Museums of Tuvixeddu preserve the finds that come, for the most part, from the Predio Ibba, excavated by Antonio Taramelli and today become the so-called basin, an inextricable forest. The so-called Park, in this case the small garden, ignores the motto "less is more" attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Disrespectful of the vast Punic necropolis, of the imposing Roman-imperial and late ancient monumental tombs, of the impressive rock habitat, and, widely, of a historical-monumental density that adds the traces of the millennia up to the contemporary. A unique event. The aim of those who have worked hard for the Homage to Tuvixeddu is to promote good civil practices but also the recognition by decision makers of the belonging to the world of a unique place from a landscape point of view.

Maria Antonietta Mongiu*

*Member of the Board of Directors of the National Museums of Cagliari