The Perfect Union
Every year in the coldest weeks of the winter season, strange sculptures begin to appear in the fields all over the island. It is the moment for grafting.
Wild olive trees grow throughout the island and they produce perfectly tiny olives with a thin and bitter skin. However, though the oil from wild olives is supposedly superior to that of domesticated varieties, the yield is much, much lower. And so the grafting game begins. Wild olive trees grow throughout the island and they produce perfectly tiny olives with a thin and bitter skin. However, though the oil from wild olives is supposedly superior to that of domesticated varieties, the yield is much, much lower. And so the grafting game begins.
ph: Valentino Congia
Pretziada is a creative practice, based on the island of Sardinia, that promotes the heritage of a territory through words, photography and a collection of design objects made with local artisans.
Kyre Chenven, a native Californian, and Ivano Atzori, Milanese by birth, moved to the southwest corner of Sardinia four years ago to begin working with artisans on resuscitating local craft. Kyre worked for years as a set designer in New York, while Ivano comes from the world of graffiti and contemporary art.
Together they work symbiotically as cultural translators: writing and photographing the particularities of the island, reproposing new designs of classic pieces, producing original designs of international creatives and assisting the artisans to shape their future trajectory. Research and narration are at the heart of their practice.