What role do artisans play?
Artisans are at the very core of the project, because they embody a deep connection with the territory, with tradition, and with a form of knowledge that adds depth to objects—a sort of “third dimension.” This is a heritage we have seen gradually fade over time, and Mustras was also conceived as an attempt to restore value to this immaterial legacy, which tends to lose its balance when artisanal production focuses primarily on tourist-oriented goods.
We are convinced that the mingling of skills generates mutual growth: designers and artists learn from artisans, and artisans, in turn, engage with new ways of seeing. We ourselves were the first to learn from what we observed and absorbed in the workshops.
Can you give us some examples of this “third dimension”?
Historically, many objects closely tied to domestic life constituted a true language. Objects were not merely functional: they told stories, relationships, and ways of living. The carved wooden madie (storage chests), for example, were rich in symbols and decorative elements that, depending on their arrangement, narrated the history of a family and the relationship between the bride’s and groom’s families.
The very name Mustras comes from sa mustra, the preparatory sketch that carpenters used to carve these chests. Each workshop jealously guarded its own mustras, which functioned as a local code, a shared lexicon. The same applies to certain textile traditions, such as the carpets of Nule, rich in religious or natural references that worked as visual narratives.
As these practices have gradually disappeared and our daily lives have changed, this language also risks being lost. Our goal has never been to reproduce it directly—that would be anachronistic—but rather to identify a line of continuity: to remain fully contemporary while seeking a thread that connects us to those elements of tradition. This approach takes different forms each time, depending on the project.
Is Mustras a project exclusively tied to Sardinia?
Our choice to work with Sardinian craftsmanship is linked to our origins, but also to the specificity of that context. Sardinian craftsmanship is a true continent—a nebula of techniques, materials, and possibilities. Insularity has certainly helped preserve strong aspects of identity. This character is our point of departure, set within a contemporary framework marked by strong cultural and architectural homogenization.
That said, Mustras is not a closed regionalist project. Its approach is transferable. Our aim is not to build fences, but bridges: to start from a local heritage and engage in dialogue with a broader, contemporary, and open horizon.
Could you tell us about some creations that have emerged from the project?
Among the works that best represent Mustras is Q.R. Quanta Res, a pibiones wool textile designed by Fabrizio Felici and Alberto Olmo. The project stems from an investigation into the concept of memory in relation to dwelling, specifically in dialogue with the territory of Seulo and the waterfall of Sa Stiddiosa, a symbolic place for the local community. The “pixelated” degradation of the weave recalls the dripping—su stiddiu in Sardinian—of water, and resonates with the idea of the QR code as a container of memory and data.
Another project, Offshore by Marco Loi, addresses the issue of production decentralization in a more explicitly critical way. Starting from labels of industrial products sold in supermarkets—made abroad yet referencing local craftsmanship—the designer transformed them into textiles produced in Sardinia. A gesture of reappropriation, both artisanal and conceptual.
There is also a more intimate work: an embroidered tablecloth designed by Martina Carcangiu and based on a text by Ernesto Nathan Rogers, published anonymously in Domus in the 1940s. The text, reflecting on the notion of dwelling, was embroidered on linen using a 1950s pedal-powered machine. The colors derive exclusively from natural dyes obtained from raw materials from southern Sardinia, demonstrating that the bond with place can pass through the choice of materials as much as through technique.
What lies ahead for the Mustras project?
Today, Mustras comprises around ninety pieces and has been selected for several prestigious exhibition contexts. The attention received from magazines and institutions came unexpectedly, like an echo that quickly traveled beyond the local sphere. Our hope is that this work can also have a tangible impact on artisanal workshops, because a unique piece—no matter how meaningful—is not enough to economically sustain a practice.
We are currently working on a commercial development that can preserve, on the one hand, the foundational value of craftsmanship and, on the other, the importance of design-driven reflection. We believe that certain objects can move beyond everyday use and enter a more extraordinary realm, where they can once again be recognized as bearers of meaning.
