EXMÀ, from the lasso of the insogadoris to the plots of culture

The uses stratification of the historical buildings in the cities with an ancient history are a cultural wealth, often alien to the citizens themselves, unfamiliar to replace a glance of a desire to memory and belonging that result, in them, the desire to try to live the same places through the eyes of their previous uses. This substratum of life, content and architecture is often a series of dichotomies, paradoxes, strident dissonances.
 

In the limestone halls of the cultural center Exmà of Cagliari, where, if the echo of the architectural lives and past uses could regurgitate from the walls and the terracotta tiles, those contrasts would resound with the ferocity of the knife and the roar of a painful moan. A slaughter-house abattoir, in other words, or brutally, an abattoir. It was the first public citizen slaughterhouse and was a destination for insogadoris (men with lasso) that crossed the streets Villanova district towards the slaughterhouse until 1964.

Since 1890 to today it has been the subject of several renovations and restorations that the entire historical district that houses it has undergone: sheep, pigs, cattle and cows, in the sad unconsciousness the unfortunate fate that awaited them, have witnessed the demolition, retraction of surrounding walls.
 

After the slaughterhouse moving in the most peripheral via Po, unaware of the passage of animals, only the redundancy of the colors yellow and red - found in the entrance door during the last restoration and incorporated in the plaster of the whole building - in an unconscious memory of the body fluids in that theater of death.

By a bicolor representations of suffering to those current, colorful, varied, corporeal, impalpable, vital of the culture. The offering events, exhibitions, conferences, educational workshops is constant and finds particular vitality during the summer: a full immersion in the depths of the blank page with the writing course of Luigi Dal Cin (from 8 to 12 July); photographic exhibitions open until July 5, ranging from social communication to rheumatic diseases with pictures taken with not conventional photographic techniques, the visual arts masterful cooperation between different and complementary, as in the work of dialogue between paintings and sculptures in the project "The dream my mother"; educational workshops for people from 0 to 100 years of theater, dance, music and narration of the self in an autobiographical journey both individual and collective that will end on December 30.
 

In the three exhibition halls, at the Exmà, culture knows how to keep the lasso. But gently: you may go and go back, stop in the backyard and wait for the night concerts. Still, four white stone cattle heads are still there, a little bit set-up, a little bit memory, a little bit theater, and, yet, culture.
 

Centro Comunale d’Arte e Cultura Exmà

Cagliari, Via San Lucifero, 71

Tel. and fax +39 070 666399

e-mail: exma@camuweb.it

Winter opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 9 to 20 Monday: closed

Summer opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 09.00 to 13 and from 17.00 to 21 Monday: closed

CLOSED August 15

Guided visits by reservation