This edition of Caro Giacomo, the first in a few years, was not just a celebration, but an artistic and community exploration.
The works on display during the festival, from July 24th to 27th, were created together with the town’s children, who in the days leading up to the procession participated in a series of workshops designed to stimulate their imagination and creative thinking.

This resulted in the flags created by Martina Celani using the cyanotype photographic technique, which portray the town’s inhabitants, immortalized by Gioia Matta in the utopian desire to register them all, because “people are the festival.”

In the exhibition space located in Piazza Dante, it was possible to listen to seven unreleased musical compositions conceived by Elia Longu, Francesco Portas, and Carlo Spiga, based on texts and sounds created during the music workshop, which could be activated through the interactive music station available to spectators.

On July 25th, the procession dedicated to Saint James, the patron saint of Perdaxius, was held, and the Polaroids created from the shots taken by the children themselves during the procession (accompanied by Martina Celani, Roberta Soldi and Anna Auricchio), gave us their perspective on the celebration.




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STORIE AL VENTO
by Anna Auricchio, Martina Celani, Laura Ennas, Gioia Matta

What happens when you start from scratch, from the basics of a village festival? One of the most recognizable elements of a festival are the classic colorful triangular flags that pass through the streets on holidays.
The most commonly used today are made of lightweight plastic, are inexpensive, don’t last long, and are quickly thrown away: ephemeral objects, like the holidays that quickly vanish.
The idea of ​​artists Anna Auricchio, Martina Celani, Laura Ennas, and Gioia Matta is to make this distinctive element of the festival durable and unique without purchasing new materials, reusing scraps of fabric recovered from the village and involving the community in the design and creation of the new flags.
Throughout the month of July, fabrics were collected (old samples, discarded clothing, unused fabrics), and the Perdaxius community center hosted a series of workshops where a group of local children chose colors and compositions, cut out, and assembled the new flags with the artists.
At the end of the workshop, the flags were installed, as they are every year, in Perdaxius town square, traversing the sky during the long summer days of late July. Rather than the traditional solid colors of ordinary flags, the new flags offered unexpected designs, colors, and textures: one of the most characteristic and, in some ways, banal elements of a celebration became a moment of reflection and sharing, and gave shape to a public artwork that now belongs to the community and can be rearranged and enriched with new flags for festive occasions.

LE PERSONE SONO LA FESTA
by Martina Celani, Gioia Matta

Reflections on the festival don’t stop at the garlands of flags that decorate the town square, but delve deeper and intertwine with photography, particularly portraiture and cyanotypes.
What is a festival, after all, if not the people who make it up? And what is a community?
What if the flags were people, their faces, their gazes?

CACCIA ALLO SCATTO
by Martina Celani, in collaboration with con Roberta Soldi

The activity transformed the children into reporters during the procession of Saint James; together, they explored Perdaxius, armed with Polaroid cameras, learning to observe carefully and choose the right moment to capture the celebration, the streets, and the people through images. The participants’ shots were later revealed to the photographers themselves and then to the public in the exhibition space in the square.

SUONI IN COSTRUZIONE
by Elia Longu, Francesco Portas, Carlo Spiga

A workshop exploring sound and listening through the creation of small musical instruments made from inexpensive or discarded materials, and a collective sound composition inspired by Perdaxius. During the festival, a musical parade of children walked through the town streets, creating never-before-heard musical interweavings.

LA GRANDE CACCIA AL TESORO DI PERDAXIUS
di Roberta Soldi e Laura Ennas

A grand treasure hunt, as large as Perdaxius, involves the entire village, its residents, and its businesses. The treasures are terracotta puppets made by local children during workshops led by artist and set designer Laura Ennas.
Located throughout Perdaxius, the puppets mark the stages of a collectively constructed adventurous story. The hunt allows young participants to explore hidden corners of streets and houses, observe them with new eyes, and experience an unexpected adventure.

CASE E NEGOZI DI PERDAXIUS
by Carlo Spiga

Carlo Spiga has been working for years on small terracotta houses, studying the shapes and materials of traditional homes in Sardinia and the Sulcis region. In 2015, together with Paolo Carta, he led a series of workshops with the community of Cagliari’s Sant’Elia neighborhood, titled “Houses and Gardens of Sardinia.” Since then, his reflection on ways of living and the relationship between architecture and nature has led the artist to develop a highly original sculptural production. He chooses to display these works only in public or residential spaces, where the sculpture’s pedestal is a bar counter, a shelf, or a garden.
“Houses and Shops of Perdaxius” is a series dedicated to the town that annually hosts the Caro Giacomo Festival; a small house was placed inside the town’s only bar, keeping bartenders and patrons company during the festival.

CARO GIACOMO 2025 IN PIAZZA DANTE
The now unused spaces, which over time housed, among other things, a clothing store and the village butcher, have been transformed into a place where works and experiences have been returned to the community, also becoming a new meeting point for residents during the holidays