“The other half of the pastures” is the mural I created for the third edition of the Bidda Festival in Siris in Sardinia, Italy. The theme of the connection with Nature and the territory proposed an opportunity to reflect on the deep bond with the environment and was truly in tune with what my works have been trying to tell in recent years.

In a historical period marked by global challenges and uncertainties, the festival initiative intended to suggest a collective awakening, a call to action towards greater ecological awareness. The aim was to reiterate the importance of preserving natural resources, protecting biodiversity and promoting a more sustainable lifestyle, actively participating in the protection of the territory in a context in which environmental and climate issues are becoming increasingly urgent.

My piece was inspired by the documentary dedicated to female pastoralism filmed by Anna Kauber and entitled “In questo mondo”. Anna traveled across Italy with her Panda interviewing 100 women aged between 20 and 102. Although the figure of the shepherd, in the collective imagination, has always been associated with the male gender, more and more women are choosing to carry out this activity with a distinctive feminine approach, taking care of animals and preserving the majestic Italian high-altitude landscapes. Among these are some iconic Sardinian women. The work does not refer to any of these figures in particular but invents two faces that repeat a gesture of care and show a stubborn look, with a clear passage of inheritance between grandmother and granddaughter, while wild and farmed animals coexist. Among these are some examples of Sardinian endemism, the averla capirossa, the sterpazzola sarda and the Sardinian Vanessa. At first I wanted to call it “Pastoral, feminine plural”, then I preferred to focus on another way of telling about these guardians of life.