pictures courtesy of Antonella Fadda from the website ghilarzaedintorni
above picture is a still from her video
Ghilarza is a community of almost 5000 inhabitants, located on the Italian isle of Sardinia.
Life and works
Born and all his life living in this community, Fellicu (actually Raffaele) Fadda (b. 1932) was educated in a family that respected religious values and he himself would share these values.
Fadda had a job as a mason, but at age fifty he entered another career, becoming a selftaught sculptor.
His sculptures have been mostly made from basalt, abundantly available in the region. Fadda would make sculptures of animals, but in general one finds depictions of people, often with a religious connotation or reflecting Sardinia's earliest and recent history and its traditions.
Fadda first made small busts, and then, experiencing he was on the right track, he went to make larger creations, both stand alone ones and ensembles.
The sculptures with a religious connotation offer a variety of holy persons, shepherds at the manger, depictions of love and charity, compassion, motherly care, love between people....
Fadda first made small busts, and then, experiencing he was on the right track, he went to make larger creations, both stand alone ones and ensembles.
The sculptures with a religious connotation offer a variety of holy persons, shepherds at the manger, depictions of love and charity, compassion, motherly care, love between people....
Epiphany
Sardinia is known because of its nuraghi, ancient stone towers of various sizes, created by stacking bricks without any grout. Fadda's sculpture garden has references to the megalithic secrets of the island where he was born, such as a megalithic stone construct, kind of a dolmen, with three standing stones and a cover stone, lifted with instruments Fadda constructed himself without any study of archeology.
Another stone construct made by Fadda is reminiscent of the megalithic structures on the isle of Malta.
Among Fadda's sculptures that refer to Sardinia's recent history we find a statue of Sardinian authoress and Noble prize winner Grazia Deledda (1871-1936) and a statue of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), the Italian philosoper and poliitical leader, who when young lived in Ghilarza (The house where he lived now is a museum dedicated to his life and works)..
Nowadays (2014) in his early eighties, Fadda for over thirty years has been active in making sculptures and I suppose the number of his works is in the hundreds.
Documentation
* Fadda´s personal website, edited by his daughter
* Trailer of Un Facteur Cheval en Sardaigne, movie by Giuseppe Trudu (Youtube,aug 2012' 2´48`', with Fadda talking about life and works, voice over in french)
* Trailer of Un Facteur Cheval en Sardaigne, movie by Giuseppe Trudu (Youtube,aug 2012' 2´48`', with Fadda talking about life and works, voice over in french)
Fellicu Fadda
Sculpture garden
Ghilarza, Sardinia, IT
visits on appointment