Nuoro, 4 October 2021 -“It is the most important project ever carried out in the history of Sardinian autonomy to promote, also at an international level, the figure of Grazia Deledda, who still remains the only Italian writer to have received the Nobel Prize for the literature. An impressive program that does not neglect any aspect of a one-of-a-kind author and who has had the undoubted merit of having turned the world limelight on Sardinia thanks to unforgettable texts with a strong emotional impact”. This was stated by Costantino Tidu, Extraordinary Commissioner of the Province of Nuoro who leads the institutional committee that launched a year of events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Grazia Deledda, the Nobel Prize-winning writer for literature in 1926 who was able to tell extraordinary narrative power the island and its people.

“The initiative of the Province, the Municipality of Nuoro, the Region, the Foundation of Sardinia, the Man and the Nuorese University Consortium – underlines Tidu – starts from the idea of ​​a necessary enhancement of the Sardinian writer, in order to create and promote cultural values, belonging to one’s land, civil coexistence, legality and peace in the people and in particular in the new generations. The path we intend to undertake is particularly ambitious. For this reason we have decided to entrust the artistic direction to Anthony Muroni, a journalist with proven professional skills, an authoritative choice on a cultural level and energetic from an organizational point of view”.

“The program foresees the involvement of all the territorial and cultural institutions, as well as of all the schools of all types and levels, in an articulation in several phases. It will have a local, regional, national projection. The celebrations – continues the Extraordinary Commissioner of the Province of Nuoro – represent the materialization of a process of promotion of the goods and values ​​of culture and knowledge, initiated by this territory with similar project initiatives within the so-called Nuoro relaunch plan: the museum system, the initiatives to support schools and education and the RESTART project which sees the University Consortium as Lead Partner”

The name of the project, with a total value of approximately 1 million and 300 thousand euros, is “150 years of Grazia. She is a woman of our times” and she is characterized by a significant number of traveling events and appointments both in Italy and abroad, obviously without neglecting Sardinia which remains the beating heart of the celebrations.

The project, in fact, includes, in addition to St. Petersburg in Russia, a stop also in the United Arab Emirates, in conjunction with the Universal Exposition which represents the most important global event of next year. Among the many activities implemented, the multimedia interactive exhibition, entitled “Deledda donna e writer”, dedicated to the artistic flair and personality of the Nobel Prize writer, stands out, created – between March and May of 2022) in five regional, national and international locations: Rome, Nuoro, Cagliari, Dubai and Milan.

The exhibition will be created with the help of new technologies as a narrative tool. Through the project called “150 years of Grazia. A woman of our times” is intended to promote Deledda’s artistic work internationally. The exhibition at the EXPO in Dubai will be accompanied by stands dedicated to the display of the writer’s books, in Italian and in their available translations, along with articles from period newspapers and photos. In parallel, the stand will be animated through the organization of readings dedicated to Deledda’s books. International and cultural events will be organized in collaboration with university professors and students:

1) National edition Grazie Deledda: cycle of European conferences (Stockholm, Nuoro). The project involves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Department for the promotion of Italian language and culture and creativity in the world and the eighty Italian Cultural Institutes;

2) Guinness Book of Records on:”longest literary reading in the world”. The young people of the provincial institutes of the province of Nuoro will participate in a non-stop reading of the texts of the Deledda 24 hours a day for a week in an atmosphere of celebration and continuous joy;

3) School of Reading and Writing”Nuoro Reading School” (five meetings dedicated each time to a novel by Grazia Deledda, which will be fully narrated, summarized, interpreted, commented and deepened. Five stories each focused on a particular theme and told below form of theatrical monologue, with the analysis of the theme treated through the narration of the story and the deepening of the psychology of the characters, who become the spokespersons of universal and strongly current feelings).

And two more conferences, a first launch in Nuoro (in the presence of the President of the Region, the Councilor for Culture and the Rectors of the island’s universities. Journalists and writers will be invited to attend) and a second study in Rome (which will be held at the Senate of the Republic, in the presence of the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the President of the Region and the Rectors of three universities. Writers and journalists will also be present)

A docufilm will also be produced on the figure of the Sardinian writer which will be broadcast on the ItsART platform, the new Italian digital platform dedicated to art, whose contents can be enjoyed live and on-demand, in Italy and abroad. To celebrate the event, a Sardinian theater company will be identified for the realization of a theatrical show to be staged in the cities of Cagliari, Nuoro and Milan (Piccolo Teatro or Teatro Arcimboldi). The show will have as its theme “The Deledda woman in amale society” and will be broadcast live and on-demand also on the ITsART platform.

The initiative “Theatrical readings in the places of Canne al Vento” provides forthe creation of moments of reading dedicated to retracing the places narrated by the writer in her most famous work. The novel Canne al Vento, in fact, immortalizes numerous places within the town of Galtellì in its pages. The activity will be carried out with the collaboration of the Grazia Deledda Literary Park.

In addition, the publication of a commemorative volume dedicated to the figure of Grazia Deledda, the publication of a text in Sardinian language and the organization of a Deleddiano reading club on Goodreads will be organized. The activities will be supported by communication activities in the regional, national and international fields.

The project “150 years of Grace. A woman of our times”is promoted by the institutional committee made up of the Province of Nuoro, the Municipality of Nuoro, the MAN Museum, the Nuorese University Consortium and the Sardinia Foundation.