Cantieri: public art project unites Matera and Cagliari after European Capital of Culture rivalry

Cantieri is a public art project curated by Sara Errico and Antonella Viggiani in collaboration with the Sardinian collective Cherimus. The project aims to build an ideal bridge between Basilicata and Sardinia, specifically between Matera (European Capital of Culture 2019) and the defeated candidate Cagliari. The goal is to preserve the grassroots ideas and energy generated during the competition for the title and transform the opportunity of a single city into shared growth. Cherimus, founded in 2007 in Perdaxius (a town of fewer than 2,000 inhabitants near Cagliari), focuses on fostering new relationships between art, culture, and small local communities. Cantieri will create unconventional itineraries through open workshops, targeting abandoned places and aiming to reintegrate workers left behind by closed or downsizing businesses in southern Sardinia. The project promotes responsible tourism that stems from an authentic reading of the place and its people, contrasting with the glamorous image of the Costa Smeralda.