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In 2014, after the incredible success of the 30 May at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences – about 100 attentive and passionate people joined the event “Grazia Deledda & Sardinia” – I wrote: ‘Sometimes, you have to choose between wisdom and madness. And, really, the process of launching Grazia Deledda in Asia and organising the City University of Hong Kong’s first overseas writing retreat, in Sardinia in October 2014, was a form of crazy passion indeed. But this was necessary when facing up four events in five months in four different locations, in two complicated cities, Hong Kong and Macau, with speakers coming from the other parts of the world, using different forms of communication and expression: lectures, the screening of a silent movie, a theatrical play, cultural discussions, conviviality.” And after the event of the 4 February 2015, “Grazia Deledda Tenors in Hong Kong”, I wrote: ‘As we anticipated, the concert has been a wonderful, incredible success. An hour before the show started, there was already a queue of a hundred people, waiting in front of the reception area. The Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong had recorded over 700 reservations before closing access to the website – something that previously had never happened. This ‘sold out’ really makes us proud. The show registered a full house. There were people from all over the world in the audience, though, as you didn’t expect, a prevalence of them were Chinese. I recognised British, Americans, Australians, and evidently Italians, some of them having come from Beijing for the occasion. And dozens of Sardinians, moved and happy… What to say? Besides feeling emotional – and deservedly proud for having worked hard in 2014 to launch Sardinia in Hong Kong and Macao, for having made contacts and created a link that will herald many positive developments – there is a contrasting sense of great bitterness. The real absent parties of the evening were the Sardinian institutions. The Italian Cultural Institute of HK and Macao did a great job of helping us in 2014, believing in our ideas, and organising this event. But then, everything has fallen on the shoulders of Beyond Thirty-Nine, on the group of passionate people who have invested time, energy and of course money to make this ‘cultural landing’ possible, and in such great style. The Sardinian Institutions have shown once again how far they are from understanding the right approach to take when addressing markets of unmatchable interest. Culture opens any door and immediately it determines a high and diversifying competition advantage. Sardinia’s cultural and artistic heritage is of immediate interest: it attracts people, surprises and fascinates them. As Sardinians, we have in our hands all the right cards to play in today’s complex markets: amazing cards. With our small group of people (by the way, I am the only Sardinian among them, so give praise where praise is due to my colleagues and friends who believe in this project and help me) we have shown how to organise a presentation of Sardinia (incidentally, as of today, February 8th, no contribution toward what was done in 2014 –for which were promised some very partial reimbursements – has been received. Nothing. Not even a penny). I’d like to emphasise one thing. All the protagonists of this event were, for my specific choice, young boys. The youngest, Nino Chessa, turned seventeen here in Hong Kong. Seventeen years old! And they were all, including the dancers, passionately skilled and professional, wonderful youngsters, who serve as an example. It is for these youngsters that we have to work, for all the Sardinian youngsters abandoned to themselves, without viable perspectives and without a future. For the youngsters, guiltily forgotten by their own institutions. Where was Sardinia last night? That Sardinia’s mouth is filled with empty words, when it would be so easy to give value to the Sardinian people’s inclination towards beauty, their passion for handicrafts, for unique products, for culture and bewildering beauties. Where were the Giants of Monte e’ Prama? Where was our heritage? Must it be left to the four crazy, yet enthusiastic people of Beyond Thirty-Nine to open Asia up to Sardinia, to explain to the Asians where Sardinia is located and how it can be reached? We must take back our pride in being Sardinian, because this is the only way to escape not only decline but also oblivion, to which we are condemned. A transversal class of incompetent people is destroying the future of these wonderful young people and clipping the wings to any initiative that has value for the future. We must rebuild our destiny, starting with culture. When will we figure it out?”
Today, we are opening a new branch of Beyond Thirty-Nine just in Sardinia, in Nuoro. Because we still think that sometimes we have to choose between wisdom and madness; that culture is the only way to escape not only decline but also oblivion, to which we are condemned thanks to a class of incompetent people; because we want to have not a passive hope, but the will to go on, stubbornly.
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For these reasons, Beyond Thirty-Nine wants to complement and help other associations and initiatives by making available its international experience and contacts, and to launch new international projects. As I said, we want to rebuild and reshape our future starting from culture, and we are ready to collaborate with all men/associations of goodwill, honesty and seriousness. Image may be NSFW.
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But, at the same time, we are ready to go on by ourselves, if the past conditions of the institutions and the widespread fatalism will persist.
Now, the first event of this new path: Beyond Thirty-Nine, in collaboration with the Coro Grazia Deledda and MieleAmaro, Libri & Musica, is proud to present the new cultural association “Beyond Thirty-Nine Sezione Nuoro” and the book “Aunt Suelita and the Devil’s Project” by Ciriaco Offeddu. This event will take place on Saturday 20 February 2015, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the ExMe’, Nuoro. Join us for an artistic occasion and a friendly buffet.
Ciriaco Offeddu
ciriacoffeddu.com