Mandi Mandi. L’intreccio diventa suono

Mariona Cañadas e Pedro Murúa

Mandi Mandi. L’intreccio diventa suono

curated by
Marta Oliva

Paluzza (UD), Friuli Venezia Giulia

Historically a crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Baltic, Paluzza is a village in the Carnic region of Friuli, rich in history and heroic figures such as Maria Plozner Mentil. During World War I, she was a Carnic porter, one of the women who maintained connections with the trenches, covertly bringing provisions and ammunition to the resistance soldiers. Maria and the other porters carried gerle (baskets) on their shoulders, were traditional items used in Alpine agriculture, and that are now symbols of resilience and local history. Similarly, the villotte — Friulian songs that accompanied work in the fields, often sung while carrying baskets — epitomise the sounds and musical language of the Carnic area.
Just like an idea, a place can be described, depicted and transposed into music, spreading into nearby and distant space.
The artists drew from this concept to create a sound installation, that could be activated by visitors.
By reinterpreting the traditional gerle, they crafted five wooden baskets and transformed them into resonating chambers to give voice to the acoustic experiences of Paluzza and its hamlets: Cleulis, Naunina, Rivo, and Timau.
In this way, the village itself becomes a sonic body, and the gerle become containers intertwining the flow of daily life, the voices of the inhabitants, their dreams, thoughts, and the But River that divides them, encapsulating the essence of the community.
The title Mandi Mandi. L’intreccio diventa suono (Mandi Mandi. The Weave Becomes Sound) encompasses a form of Friulian greeting derived from the Latin mane dieu, used to welcome newcomers. The project resonates in the Moscarda Tower park as an invitation to stay, to listen, and as a wish for prosperity to all who pass by.

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Artwork:
01. Mariona Cañadas e Pedro Murúa, Mandi Mandi. L’intreccio diventa suono, 2024. Sound installation, 5 wooden amplifiers, iron, variable dimensions.
The installation is located in the park next to the Moscarda Tower and is marked by arrows.

To activate it, scan the QR Code inside each sculpture.

The river, the forest, the greeting are intertwined to connect the villages through sound. Inspired by the villotte, the songs that have accompanied and shaped the territory, we have collected the sounds derived from daily life and, symbolically, loaded them into the gerle (baskets) to weave a collective soundscape.

Mariona Cañadas e Pedro Murúa, *Mandi Mandi. L’intreccio diventa suono*, Paluzza (UD), Friuli Venezia Giulia. Ph Mattia Romanut

Mariona Cañadas (Barcelona, Spain, 1991) and Pedro Murúa (Santiago, Chile, 1991) both studied at the Massana School in Barcelona. There, Murua pursued studies in Sculptural Techniques while Cañadas obtained a degree in Art History from the University of Barcelona. Their collaborative practice explores the possibilities of textile and sculptural language in contemporary visual arts and is complemented by workshops, activities, and lectures. Together, they have participated in several artistic residencies and festivals, including at the Linen and Weaving Museum on the Danish island of Fyn (DK, 2019); Residencia artística del Buen Vivir (PV, 2021); Hilari-um (ES, 2022); In-ruins (IT, 2023); and Embarrat (ES, 2023). Their work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, with recent participations including the Biennial d’Art Diputació de Tarragona (ES, 2023); the exhibition Tejidos y no Tejidos curated by Espacio Intermedio (ES, 2023); and Mieses at the Textile Museum of Terrassa (ES, 2022).

Our artistic practice takes as its starting point the expressive value of materials, related to personal, cultural and natural experiences. We understand materials beyond their physical, modellable and constructive qualities. Their origin, how they have been manipulated and transformed, the territory, are aspects that challenge us and bring us closer to interacting with them in a particular way.

Paluzza (UD)

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Paluzza is a town on the historic Via dell’ambra (Amber Road) that ran from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea from the Bronze Age on. The historic settlement was founded by workers labouring in the copper and silver mines on the mountains named Pal Piccolo and Pal Grande and on the Creta mountain. The village comprises the hamlets Naunina, Rivo, Cleulis and Timau (Tischlbong in Germanic dialect). In fact the latter is a German language island, and it is also home to the Tempio Ossario (Ossuary Temple), where the remains of 1,764 fallen combatants from the Alto Bût front and the surrounding area are conserved. An important military stronghold along the road that led to the transalpine passes, the Moscarda Tower is all that remains of a complex defence and customs structure at the location Enfretors (“between the two towers”), on the road leading to the Monte Croce Carnico Pass. Today it is a museum of the territory with an adjoining botanical garden.
The Great War Museum houses a vast collection of Italian-Austrian war relics found in the mountains around Timau and about a thousand documents and photographs that illustrate the dramatic events of the Great War on the front line named the “Carnia Zone”, whose Monte Croce Carnico Pass was one of the sections that saw the bitterest fighting. The powerful front-line fortifications of the two opposing sides, which at the summit of the Pal Piccolo mountain were only a few dozen metres apart, are still clearly visible today.

Thanks to: Mayor Luca Scrignaro, Nicole Coceancing, Ursula Puntel, Dimitri Plozner, Beppino Dicenta, Slivia Tassoti, Erica Baritussio, Concina Rossana, Marco e Andrea Morocutti di Bottega Ebanista, Jose Jünemann, Nicola Beltrame, Giuliano Polo.