Experience, immateriality, relationship and listening are the terms evoked by Due Qui/To Hear, the project sculpted on the upbeat by artist Massimo Bartolini and directed by curator Luca Cerizza for the Italian Pavilion at the 60th Biennale. Suggesting a series of genealogical and transversal citations between the different fields of knowledge – music, philosophy, literature, physics, engineering – all in a dialectical key, the project is configured in a choral manner, reflecting how beyond the dominant aesthetics of the visual, ethics and meditation can inform the arts by addressing an aural paradigm. Comprehensively, Due Qui/To Hear suggests a trajectory in becoming, a path that is not defined or fixed but accessible from two possible equivalent entrances, both to be experienced physically and intellectually in relational terms. A series of moments or situations marked by the positioning of sound and environmental installations connotates the counterpoints of the soundscape of Due Qui/To Hear, split between the internal dimension of at the Tese at the Arsenal venue and the external atmosphere of Giardino delle Vergini at the Biennale.

Massimo Bartolini, “Pensive Bodhisattva on A Flat”, 2024, 2500×32×32 cm, statue 40×9×9 cm, 50 minutes of music / 10 minutes break, wood, engine, bronze, Organ builders: Massimo Drovandi, Samuele Frangioni, Samuele Maffucci Courtesy the artist, Massimo De Carlo, Frith Street Gallery and Magazzino. Photo Andrea Avezzù, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Once crossed the threshold of the Tese, the sculpture Pensive Bodhisattva on a Flat (2024) appears by manifesting its votive function through an evocation of traditional Buddhist iconology in terms of pose and symbolic meaning. The sculpture is only apparently supported by a minimalist column that will soon reveal itself as an empty armor, an organ pipe which emits a prolonged sound tuned to the key of A Flat whose wave frequency together with that of the A, according to a study of the composer Alexander Scriabin from 1911, is reflected in the timbre of the purple and green color fields, which both distinguish the monochrome frescoed surfaces of the gallery. As metaphors of a meditative dimension of art, sound and (inner) light both sculpt and permeate the interiors of the environment wherein the figure of Pensive Bodhisattva on A flat claims its position by virtue of a non-action, informing listening and meditative practices.

Massimo Bartolini, “Due qui”, 2024, 12×6×50 m, 50 minutes of music / 10 minute break, iron, cast iron, wood, engines, electronic system. Music composition: Caterina Barbieri, Kali Malone, metal parts and design: Yari Andrea Mazza, executive project: Riccardo Rossi, organ builders: Massimo Drovandi, Samuele Frangioni, Samuele Maffucci, electronic system: Valerio Marrucci, scaffolding construction: Euroedile, Postioma (TV) (Alessandro Ballan, Denis Daullja, Fabiano Gregolin, Nicola Lazzari, Vasyl Ozhibko, Rinor Krasniqi, Vitali Serbin). Courtesy the artist, Massimo De Carlo, Frith Street Gallery and Magazzino. Photo Andrea Avezzù, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Crossing the second environment of the exhibition, means to draw a personal path within the complex labyrinthine of the installation Due Qui (2024), which fits in with the architectural space at the Tese. If the framework of the installation is informed by the engineering of metal scaffolding, its composition reflects the functionality of an instrument for sound propagation, configuring a labyrinth to be crossed in metaphorical terms. Designed by Bartolini with reference to an imaginary Italian Baroque Garden, Due Qui/To Hear is an instrumental installation aimed to shape the ideal configuration of an aural landscape by orientating the vibrations and the frequencies of a sound kept safe in its main nucleus. Delving into the heart of the installation, the sculpture Conveyance (2024) revisits the participatory plasticity of fountains of Italian gardens but, thanks to its circular and minimalist geometry, it welcomes the spectator by inviting him/her to listen. The sound deriving from this primary source is an antiphon in A flat conceived by the composers of avant-garde electronic music Caterina Barbieri and Kali Malone, in which two melodic lines intersect and complete in Mute vette (A Reflection That Shines From One Mind Upon Another), ultimately merging with the source animation of a natural phenomenon: the visualization of the pulsation of a conical wave that continuously rises and falls in a loop. Once again in this environment, Bartolini’s sculptural operation transcends matter merging into an immersive and aural experience to be experienced both subjectively and relationally.

Massimo Bartolini, “Due qui”, 2024, 12×6×50 m, 50 minutes of music / 10 minute break, iron, cast iron, wood, engines, electronic system. Music composition: Caterina Barbieri, Kali Malone, metal parts and design: Yari Andrea Mazza, executive project: Riccardo Rossi, organ builders: Massimo Drovandi, Samuele Frangioni, Samuele Maffucci, electronic system: Valerio Marrucci, scaffolding construction: Euroedile, Postioma (TV) (Alessandro Ballan, Denis Daullja, Fabiano Gregolin, Nicola Lazzari, Vasyl Ozhibko, Rinor Krasniqi, Vitali Serbin). Courtesy the artist, Massimo De Carlo, Frith Street Gallery and Magazzino. Photo © Agostino Osio for AltoPiano

The passage between inside and outside is almost imperceptible where the sounds of Due Qui / To Hear unfolds in a series of moments and metamorphoses. In osmosis with the tree trunks of Giardino delle Vergini, Bartolini’s instrumentalities are inserted and suggested by the choral music for three voices, bells and vibraphone composed by Gavin Bryars and his son Yuri Bryars, further inspired by the compositions of the poet, Roberto Juarroz, which all accompanies by the sculptural works A veces ya no puedo moverme (Sometimes I can no longer move). Here, Bartolini metaphorically merges the symbolic image of the tree with the physicality of the human body according to a radical thought that deals with sculpture in terms embodiment and firmness. The artist’s research extends into the choice to structure the performative aspect of the artist’s works in relational terms as for the work Audience for a Tree, suggesting the scenario of a listening community, cultivating the practices of meditation and sustainability in anticipation to speak.

Kali Malone, Luca Cerizza, Caterina Barbieri and Massimo Bartolini, inside the work by Massimo Bartolini, “Conveyance”, 2024, in the Italian Pavilion – Biennale Arte 2024. Photo © Agostino Osio for AltoPiano

With Due Qui/To Hear, Massimo Bartolini and Luca Cerizza affirm the necessity to root a new founding act in the present time. The acoustic paradigm combined with an aural experience of art aims to jointly reflect a hope for ideally rethinking the role of subjectivity beyond the boundaries of the self in favour of the other in dialectical terms. Sound, light, music, color, sculpture and landscape constitute the pure elements of the metaphorical and meditative experience of Due Qui/To Hear, ultimately reflecting on the circularity of time.

Info:

Italian Pavilion: DUE QUI / TO HEAR
60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
20.04 – 24.11.2024
Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale, Venezia
Commissioner: Angelo Piero Cappello
Curator: Luca Cerizza
Artist: Massimo Bartolini

Sara Buoso

She is interested in the visual, verbal and textual aspects of the Modern Contemporary Arts. From historical-artistic studies at the Cà Foscari University, Venice, she has specialized in teaching and curatorial practice at the IED, Rome, and Christie’s London. The field of her research activity focuses on the theme of Light from the 1950s to current times, ontologically considering artistic, phenomenological and visual innovation aspects.