Museo all'aperto Maria Lai, Open-air art museum in Ulassai, Italy

Museo all'aperto Maria Lai is an open-air art museum displaying numerous installations and textile works throughout the mountain village of Ulassai. The artworks sit integrated within the village streets and structures, forming a single unified exhibition space across the entire settlement.

The open-air museum grew out of Legarsi alla montagna, a 1981 community performance in which Maria Lai had all the houses of Ulassai tied together with 27 km of light-blue cloth. Over three decades, art encounters and works by Sardinian and other artists accumulated in the village. The project was later completed and relaunched with the Museo d'Arte contemporanea La Stazione dell'arte.

The route takes its name from Legarsi alla montagna, the 1981 action in which 27 km of sky-blue cloth tied the houses of Ulassai together. In the old communal washhouse, Maria Lai's ceiling loom, Telaio Soffitto, pays homage to the women of Ulassai, beside sound and wheat fountains by Nivola, Strazza and Veronesi.

The route runs through the village and out into the countryside, so allow time to walk between the works; some, like La scarpata and Pastorello mattiniero con capretta, lie beyond the built-up area. The Lavatoio comunale holds four works in one spot, and the ticket office of the Stazione dell'arte museum carries Olio di parole on its facade.

In 1981 Maria Lai coordinated a memorable event where villagers connected their homes with kilometers of blue ribbon reaching toward the mountain. This action marked the beginning of the ongoing artistic transformation that turned the entire village into an interactive creative space.