Maria Lai (1919-2013) is the most international one among the artists born in Sardinia, celebrated in 2007 at the Venice Biennale and in the most prestigious one of all contemporary art expositions in the world: the Documenta exhibition in Athens and Kassel sites; in 2018 she will play a leading role in an important exhibition at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, promoted by the Uffizi Gallery.

This volume retraces all lines of research, through works selected at public collections but largely identified inside international private collections. The advancements of her path are associated with numerous unpublished materials, frequently essential to recreate actions born to remain ephemeral, stated by historiography as “the first tests of Relational Art” at European level. Lai, as a matter of fact, overturned the relationship between the artist and the observer, turning people into the original artists of the work. That’s a new way of thinking and performing art, not getting rid of the established one but rather matching it and extending its meaning.