David Benforado
De Terra e de Bentu (Da Terra e Vento)
L’artista interviene nel vecchio borgo disabitato di tratalias con una serie di tele di grandi dimensioni esposte in sa domu de tzia giuannicca, una casa tradizionale in pietre e fango che conserve il nome della proprietaria
David Benforado, De Terra e de Bentu (Da Terra e Vento), 2021, Tratalias (SU), Sardegna. Ph. Sara Deidda
In his painting, David Benforado (Athens, 1977) conducts the visitor into an intellectual exercise of reading through colors. These hold the visitor’s gaze and invite them to discover what is hidden in the abstract expression. Music is also an integral part of his work: for the past thirteen years he has studied the ney, a Turkish flute that originates in the eastern Mediterranean region. The ney provided a spiritual and mystical affinity in his perception of the Mediterranean, becoming a fundamental element of projects and performances. In 2015, he exhibited at the Jewish Museum in Athens, and in 2018 at the Contemporary Art Museum of Crete.
Tratalias is a Sardinian village of 1,024 inhabitants in the province of Carbonia-Iglesias, which is 30km away. It is located in the Sulcis region, on a hill in front of the Gulf of Palmas. Every year, on the patronal feast day dedicated to the Virgin of Monserrato, the statue of the Madonna, normally kept in the Romanesque church of the same name, is transported on a tractor «dressed up for the occasion», holding blankets, sheets and precious carpets.