Sea ants

by Marta Fontana

To the galanzieri, to their toil of sea and lead, to our horizon.

When I was invited by the Municipality of Carloforte to create a public work of art dedicated to the work of the galanzieri, to be allocated in San Carlo pier, I immediately thought of creating an artistic sign shared with the community, a sign that was an immediate trace, symbolic but legible, of what was in all respects a bridge-work between the island of San Pietro and the mining shores of south-western Sardinia. This “bridge” was made of men, their arms, energy, effort, it was made of boats, of a coming and going of “bilancelle” (a specific kind of boats used by the galanzieri) in whose bellies the mineral was stowed, mostly galena, with a very high lead content, extracted along the south west of the Sardinian coast, reachable from the island of San Pietro.

The very hard work of the galanziere (from galanza, a Carloforte dialect term for galena) involved going to the nearby mining coasts, loading the mineral on board, returning, unloading the mineral in warehouses in the island. This movement was daily, weather and availability of mineral permitting. Then there was a further loading of the mineral, at the right time, from the warehouse deposits to the large ships going elsewhere for processing. The work tasks were demanding, often carried out in extremely dangerous and tiring conditions.

The work of the galanzieri has strongly marked the historical and social past of Carloforte, between the 19th and the 20th centuries (the first transports date back to 1851, the last ones date back to around the mid-1900s). I considered fundamental that the work of the galanzieri determined not only frenetic activity and vitality on the island, but also very important social actions for the growth of awareness of workers’ rights.

I thought that this artistic sign must inevitably involve a participation extended to the entire territory touched by the work of the galanzieri and open the island of San Pietro to the horizon of renewed relationships across a sea that unites rather than separates lands.

My project aims to become somehow a bridge between workers, knowledge, traces, materials, people, places linked to the epic of the galanzieri and to that work system which includes a whole series of specific aspects and themes, including: economy, physical energies, resources, materials and means inherent to the excavation and transport of the mineral, one for all: galena.

I therefore planned to interact with different local realities, different areas of work, research, knowledge, historical memory linked to the work of the galanzieri. The tangible aspect, the sediment, of this entire relational process is an installation composed of several elements in the space of the pier, which can be used by the public who will be able to “inhabit – pass through” it. The “monument”, without a pedestal, will be open to passers-by and will accompany them along a path of references that draws on materials and forms from the historical and visual memory of the community.

The project is supported by the Municipality of Carloforte, the “Fondazione di Sardegna” and the “Fondazione Cammino Minerario di Santa Barbara”.

Marta Fontana (Este, Padova,1971), artista visiva, realizza ricerche installative e grafico/pittoriche. Dal 2001 vive e lavora stabilmente a Carloforte. 

Immagini storiche:
1: Archivio storico comunale di Iglesias, Fondo Monteponi/Montevecchio, serie fotografica e tecnica, Battelli a vela – scalo ferroviario Porto Vesme, s.d., b2.3g-f7
2-3: Foto attribuita al Dottor Luigi Tocco, medico scolastico di Iglesias, agosto 1952, Buggerru, ora di proprietà del sig. Gian Carlo Leo, fotografo.