377: How the project was born

Sebastiano Dessanay

377 Project is an art project dedicated to Sardinia.

The artist is Sebastiano Dessanay, he will bike across every single town of Sardinia: 377 towns in 377 days.

The very start

It was about a year ago, I’ve got a call from Sebastiano, he was still in Uk at that time:

“Hi Simo, I’d like to do a bike tour across all towns of Sardinia”

Very good.

“I want to spend a day per each single village, so the whole tour will last 377 days, that’s the number of Sardinian towns”

Terrific!

“Well, I don’t just want ride across them by bike, I want to narrate them through my music”

Fantastic, marvelous, enchanting!!!

“Do you really think I’d be able to realize something like that?”

I’m telling you: you MUST do that!

A month later, during a friend’s wedding, the idea started to come to life.

“I’d need a decent bike”

That’s easy, the world is plenty of bicycles. But just in case you have problems, do you know how to fix a bike?

“Ehm…not really”

Well, this needs to be fixed 🙂

The very same day he had a proper touring bike, supplied by Sandro of Dolcevita and a scheduled bike mechanic class with our friends of Ciclofficina Sella del Diavolo. Many friends, little problems, as we say in Italy. We were the very first “sponsor” of this adventure. And very proud too 🙂

The idea becomes a project

It was spring, with Marcello and Sandro we met Sebastiano in Cagliari. He brought a large sheet of transparent paper, with the drawing of Sardinia’s map contour. On the map he appointed all names of Sardinian Villages without the roads. I had a map with me, by the way it was the exact scale of the one he used to draw the contour. We put his map over mine, and the four of us started dreaming like kids about the best roads from a village to the next. That time we’ve had the idea of a tour starting from his ancestor’s town, Nuoro, then ending in the capital of Sardinia, Cagliari.

We designed a tour covering the whole region like a spiral, leaving the coldest areas for the warmest months and the warmer southern coastline for the upcoming winter. We had few dinners since then, the pic was taken in my kitchen just two days before the official start.

Art is about giving

This project shows the whole dedication, planning and pragmatism of Sebastiano, he left his job and invested all his resources on this challenge. As simply as that. He’s creating a piece of art out of a bike tour. A project inspired as well to the beauty of Maria Lai art, since it really unites the communities of the Island.

Well, what I like the most of 377 Project is that Sebastiano is not just receiving hospitality, food, emotions, but he is truly giving back this piece of art to whole Sardinia.

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