The Nivola Museum is pleased to present Lawrence Weiner 's first exhibition in Sardinia.

One of the most important artists of our time, part of the group that developed Conceptual Art and Arte Povera in the 1960s, Weiner explores the possibilities of using language as an artistic medium. In 1968 Weiner established the fundamental parameters of his art in a Statement of Intent:

1.The artist can build the work

2. The work can be manufactured

3. The work does not necessarily have to be built.

Each proposition being equal and consistent with the artist's intention, the decision on the conditions is the responsibility of the person who collects the remuneration as soon as the collection has taken place. "

LANGUAGE + MATERIALS TO WHICH IT REFERS is the medium that Weiner uses in the realization of his works. "The fact is that - he says - they are sculptures, since they show the relationship between objects and objects and this is the idea and purpose of the sculpture." With this view, his work exists independently of its physical existence.

Weiner's works are descriptive rather than prescriptive. They do not invite the viewer to perform a certain action or interpret the work in a unique way. On the contrary, they offer the viewer an infinite number of meanings and the same, infinite possibilities of realization.

ATTACHED BY EBB AND FLOW refers to the action of the tides on the shoreline, entering into relationship with Costantino Nivola's experience of exile and emigration and with the insularity of Sardinia, as well as with the migrant crisis and human destiny in general . Complete freedom of interpretation is offered to the viewer - any other way of presenting the work would be considered by the artist as a “fascist” imposition.

“The installation - says Antonella Camarda, director of the museum and co-curator of the exhibition - is therefore in tune with the context of the museum and the island, but is not linked to it. Against the obsession with site-specificity that runs through many contemporary art practices, Weiner's work tends to be universal in its appeal to human reason and feelings: a wall is a wall, both in Orani and in New York, in how much is the structure that allows the presentation of the work ".

On the walls of the exhibition pavilion - a 19th-century building, once the public wash house of the village of Orani - Weiner's work is repeated several times, connoting the space and suggesting the continuous movement of water (or the repetitive movements of women washing clothes).

American English, Italian and Sardinian express the same sentence using different words and verbal constructs. The translation from one language to another and the simultaneous presentation of the three options meet the needs of audience understanding, root the work in its specific context and open up more possibilities to read and interpret the work.

As stated by the president of the Nivola Foundation and co-curator of the exhibition Giuliana Altea: “something is lost in translation, but much more can be found. For example, the first word, ATTACHED / ATTACCATO / ATTACCAU: while the English discriminates between attacked and attacked, Italian and Sardinian do not, immediately exposing the ambiguity and the potential danger linked to physical proximity “.

With ATTACHED BY EBB & FLOW the museum, in line with Nivola's legacy, continues to explore the possibilities of sculpture as an artistic medium. Agreeing with Lawrence Weiner that "art is the empirical fact of the relationships between objects and objects in relation to human beings and does not depend on historical precedents of use or legitimacy", with this exhibition the Nivola Museum offers the public an invitation to contribute, to discuss and rethink the cultural, social and political field.