Salti nel buio. L’esperienza itinerante nelle fotografie di Gianni Berengo Gardin = Leaps into the darkness. The itinerant experience in the photographs of Gianni Berengo Gardin

The paper delves into the role of authorial architectural photography in communicating the prehistoric cultural heritage, focusing specifically on the Nuragic archaeologies of Sardinia. The narrative of prehistoric architecture, in most instances, is primarily and solely traced back to a perspective rooted in the strict rigor of modern archaeology. This discipline, with its objective methodologies based on a solemn degree of scientificity, aims to accurately describe a vast array of physical artifacts spanning the entire globe and a specific time frame. Such a specialized narrative, however, tends to obscure and limit the expressive and spatial power of these monuments, which, now more than ever, attain a contemporary significance. It is therefore time to reassign to this archaeological note Agamben's sense of "prehistory," wherein photography, perceived as an artistic gesture, can emerge as one of the many venues for exploring ancient spaces – a cultural tool capable of presenting myriad opportunities for the accurate valorization and transmission of Nuragic architecture. Nuraghi, Nuragic villages, water sites, metallurgical production areas, and death sites: numerous photographers have endeavored to narrate these diverse and multifaceted archaic places. They have captured, following an idea of city characterized by microcosms, that poetic image of a “storm of fallen stars” on the island's crust, as master of Sardinian Nuragic archaeology Giovanni Lilliu used to describe. The abundant insular experiences – among which those of Delessert, Mackey, Alinari, Patellani, and De Biasi stand out – portray the Nuragic space as both captivating and enigmatic, rigorously explored by great photography masters utilizing the black and white technique. Through this unique representational code, photography instigates a sort of proximity with the prehistoric space, evidently touching something closely related to what the Nuragic artist had once conceived, designed, and built. It is a pull towards the archaic and primal idea of these architectures, a dimension in perpetual potency of original synthesis. However, this specific critical-poetic stance towards Sardinian archaeologies assumes a sensitivity that still struggles to come forth in Nuragic sites, even in the most renowned and protected ones, due to undeniably ineffective site management, which has yet to find an adequate recognition nationally and internationally. Given the recent inclusion of Nuragic monuments in the UNESCO Tentative List, it's essential to elevate these perspectives, reflecting on the actual role that the cultural tool of photography can play in narrating and perceiving the Sardinian prehistoric space. Some masters, indeed, have adeptly interpreted these monuments through their art. In this context, the paper zeroes in on one of the most intriguing and recent photographic campaigns conducted in Sardinia: the itinerant artistic experience of photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin in 2018, in collaboration with archaeologist Marco Edoardo Minoja. A remarkable project where the shots provide a distinct perspective on Nuragic space, with both photographer and archaeologist converging on the original integrity of Nuragic making.