“Su fogu 'e Satt'Antoni” is a play on words that expresses the underlying theme of a visual story that intertwines work, experience, and memory.
The protagonist is Antonio Satta, a talented photojournalist for the Unione Sarda, author of exclusive reports such as the one shot in the San Patrignano community, a witness to local news and a passionate music photographer. The exhibition, organized by Marco Navone's Argonauti Association, will open on Friday, February 6th at 6:00 PM at the Società dello Stucco on Via Cavour in Olbia. It captures the rites of January 16th and 17th, when the masks make their first, symbolic appearance. The geography of this photographic journey spans the Barbagia region: Mamoiada, Ottana, and Orotelli. Here, the Mamuthones and Issohadores, the Boes and Merdules with the Filonzana, and the Thurpos parade, respectively. The central element of Satta's work, however, is fire.
"The idea is that the protagonist was fire or its reflection," Satta explains, "which is often missing from the thousands of Carnival photos, even in photography books dedicated to the rites. In Ottana, then, you encounter unique masks like Sa Filonzana, the only female figure in the Sardinian Carnival, an old woman who weaves and summons the Fates."
The exhibition features three distinct reportages: the first, shot in the 1990s on slide film and later digitized, the second dates back to the mid-2000s, and the third was taken last January 16th in Orotelli.
"In all three sequences, Satta confirms his ability to synthesize and deeply interpret contexts," Marco Navone emphasizes. "The photographic narrative is fluid, unwavering, and masterfully captures the salient moments of the ceremonies. These events," he continues, "once truly a local community treasure, have now almost all been transformed into circus rides, losing some of the spontaneity that distinguished them years ago. What remains, however, is the apotropaic and propitiatory meaning that local communities attribute to them, and the unparalleled hospitality offered to all with such generosity. Argonauti, once again, recalls the carnival of a few days earlier, with a nod to tradition and the hope that many will then travel to discover a world that, just a few kilometers away, represents an extraordinary journey."
Olbia singer-songwriter Daniele Gala will be presenting his latest single, "Viseras," in the city. The single, inspired by the Mamoiada carnival, debuted successfully at the Museum of Mediterranean Masks on January 17th.
