SU TAPETU SECAU
“It's an invitation to introspection, to looking inside ourselves": Graziella, founder of the weaving project Studio Pratha, explains how the idea of creating tapestries with visible warp (the set of vertical threads on which the weft is subsequently woven) came about. "Seeing them being born, with the warp pouring in and gradually the tapestry covering it, I almost felt sorry because the warp was so beautiful to see. So why not try to convey this emotion to those who see the finished work? That’s where the idea came from. When I talked about it with the weavers... they were shocked! Su tapetu secau! (the broken carpet, in Sardinian dialect) they first exclaimed".
Under Graziella's guidance, the weavers create their works, progressing a few centimeters each day. The succession of their quick and precise movements on the loom strings produces a sound that harks back to the origins of this land: the roots of the tapestries go back to the first forms of shelters built by humans, who, by intertwining branches, straw, and natural fibers, established a deep connection between weaving and living. In their case, the weaving technique is an ancient practice, unique to the village of Sarule, in the heart of Barbagia, enriched by the fusion with new formal languages.
The wool used for the project is entirely local. The sheep are accustomed to that climate and thus produce coarser wool, which gets washed only once it's sheared. It's never possible to clean it entirely. As Graziella further explains: "Everything gets trapped in those fibers. And when the weavers say that it's dirty, I reply: don't worry, this is our DNA. In a thousand years, they will say: look, this tapestry belongs to Sardinia, because it contains the DNA of the island, with its flowers, its soil, its grass".
All the natural colors - gray, black, white - are natural without dye. They dye the yellow because an herb called “erimeri” grows in the land, which gives all shades of yellow and some shades of orange. It's the only color that comes out uniform with the first bath and has been tested for millennia. You leave it in the sun, and it will never fade. As Graziella says: “in Sardinia the first color we see in spring is yellow; the last to die is yellow”.