The history of Sardinia has been shaped by dynamics of exploitation and socio-economic subordination to continental powers. While in the past the island was regarded as a vast reservoir of mineral resources, within the context of the ecological transition wind has become the new resource to be extracted. Terna’s projects are a clear example of this tendency: the Tyrrhenian Link will connect the island to mainland Italy in order to improve Sardinia’s grid stability while simultaneously redistributing the energy surplus generated by wind power to the peninsula. This comes with little to none reduction in energy costs for Sardinian residents, which remain among the highest in Italy.
Departing from a childhood memory, (a wind tale) from a tree challenges these dynamics of internal colonialism that continue to position Sardinia as a reservoir of resources to be exploited for the benefit of the mainland. The project proposes the creation of a collective and dispersed atlas of the maestrale, the island’s dominant wind, through the cataloguing of wind-bent cork oak trees in Gallura, a region in northern Sardinia. The maps that constitute the atlas are collectively designed and subsequently reproduced as woven tapestries using traditional Sardinian textile techniques.
In this way, (a wind tale) from a tree becomes a political device capable of bringing Sardinian communities into dialogue with the territories they inhabit, considering wind as something other than a resource to be extracted. At the same time, the project reflects on the extractive nature of photography and cartography as instruments of cultural hegemony within the context of Italian colonial discourse.
