It was September 8, 1981, when Maria Lai tied Ulassai to the mountain with a long blue ribbon that went from house to house, transcending borders and ancient resentments. Forty-five years later, Paola Pilia, 46, journalist, director of the TCS television station, and a popular voice on Radiolina, retraces that historic event in a podcast, "Il Nastro Celeste," coming tomorrow to Spotify and Unionesarda.it, which produced it. The original soundtrack is by Matteo Gallus and Andrea Lai, with video editing and post-production by Massimo Sulis.

The podcast is funded by the European Union under the NextGenerationEU program and by the Municipality of Ulassai, the Fondazione Stazione dell'Arte Camuc, the Sardinia Region, and the Ministry of Culture.

"It's the quintessential work of journalism," explains Lorenzo Paolini, co-editor of L'Unione Sarda and its editorial director, "and I'm very happy that our newspaper has contributed, because we're talking about the first social art project that comes to mind, which, beyond its artistic implications, offers some anthropological implications that are still moving today. But Maria Lai was absolutely brilliant; I once saw her at Antonio Marras's house staring at a wall for hours. When I asked her why, she replied, 'I'm waiting for you to talk to me.'"

Paola Pilia, five episodes to tell the story of an event that helped change a town, Ulassai. Her town.

It's a story that's part of my memory, also because I've always heard it told. They didn't call it "tying the mountain" but "the day of the ribbons," and I discovered there's a video of me taking this blue ribbon too. Over the years, bits and pieces of this story have been added to the tale, which I finally decided to tell.

It all started with the request to create a war memorial.

"Exactly. But she refused, but she convinced the mayor to build this work, which wasn't intended to be a monument, but to build human relationships; something already cutting-edge now, let alone back then. At first, no one recognized it as a work of art because it didn't produce objects, and this fueled controversy. All of this occurred within a monstrous political conflict, because we're at the end of the 1970s, a few years earlier Moro had been kidnapped, the historic compromise had waned, and the DC and PCI were arguing furiously even in Ulassai."

The podcast, therefore, uses the event itself as a magnifying glass on a specific historical moment.

"In a certain sense, too. Then there's the story of how the work was created and the entire legacy, that is, what happened next, with Maria Lai's donation of 140 of her works, which will go to the Stazione dell'Arte, the museum founded in her name and which has become a reference point for art, especially contemporary art: Ulassai unexpectedly enters into an artistic dialogue with the rest of the world."

What value does it have today, in retrospect, to talk about that event?

"First of all, it's a beautiful story, and, as Maria Lai also said, we need stories, and this seemed like the right story for a podcast because it brings together such important values: first, that of a woman at the forefront, ahead of everything, fighting against everyone to make this work a reality. Then, the value of courage, freedom, and foresight, because the work itself has extraordinary values, as it effectively forced people to engage with each other even if they didn't get along, having to physically connect their homes. Forty-five years later, the people I interviewed say that the work changed the community, and not just economically."

We could say that Maria Lai taught us that we don't just eat art, we live by it.

Art enters our homes and forces us to look each other in the eye. This is a recurring question, among others, that I've asked all the speakers, like Paolo Fresu, Francesco Abate, and Elena Pontiggia: art can change people's lives, it can even transform communities. The podcast also aims to be a reflection on the role of culture and art. 'Linking Oneself to the Mountain' was a revolutionary idea.

Ciro Auriemma

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