Massimo Bartolini: Due qui / To Hear. Italian Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2024 (Update)

“Playing on the homophones “two here” (in Italian, due qui) and “to hear,” the title of this project suggests how hearing—or better, listening—is a form of attention to others. The acoustic paradigm should be seen here as a physical experience, but also as a metaphor, an invitation to pay attention, to listen to the Other, be it a human being, a mechanical element, or a natural form. In Bartolini’s view, art is a path to knowledge, and the project suggests that “lending an ear” could become a tool for self-improvement within the community of this world. Through sculptures, installations, sound works, and performances, with a range that is characteristic of the artist’s practice, it aims to create a context of experience. Visitors to the Pavilion can use either of two entrances—from the Tesa or from the garden—and move through three areas built around different forms of motion and stasis, acoustic experiences and meeting points. All of the works respond to the physical characteristics of each exhibition space, without adopting any form of display. Due qui / To Hear is also the fullest expression to date of a collaborative approach that Bartolini frequently employs, involving many different figures. The skills and languages of music (Caterina Barbieri, Gavin Bryars, Kali Malone), literature (Nicoletta Costa, Tiziano Scarpa), and technical fields (engineers, organ builders, artisans) have contributed to defining the artistic and curatorial project in all of its complexity, like a polyphonic composition for many voices.” – Luca Cerizza Massimo Bartolini: Due qui / To Hear. Italian Pavilion at Venice Art Biennale 2024. Venice (Italy), April 17, 2024. Official description: Designed with two entrances, the exhibition Due qui/To Hear — presented with support from the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity — moves through three spaces built around various acoustic experiences and meeting points, suggesting the highly relational nature of sound. Visitors can enter an almost empty room where they are welcomed by a small sculpture of a Pensive Bodhisattva, a Buddhist figure who prefers thought to action. The drone of an organ pipe creates a sense of frozen time, a space of waiting. In the central room, a large scaffolding of pipes has been transformed into an organ playing a melody composed by Caterina Barbieri and Kali Malone. Visitors can walk through and sit down on a circular bench. At its centre is a pool where a wave constantly rises and falls, prompting a form of meditation, even a trance state. Coming out into the garden, they can listen to two stories about the cycle of birth/death (and regeneration): that of a tree (by Nicoletta Costa) and that of a human being (by Tiziano Scarpa). Further on, they will also hear a choral work (by Gavin Bryars). Hanging in the branches of a tree, these voices sing of a person who feels roots growing through him. They pin him down, but also bring him closer to others, to the Whole... 360° Version: #biennalearte2024 #biennale #massimobartolini Join our channel for early access and exclusive videos: More videos on contemporary art, design, architecture: Connect: Browse our Archive: Find Artists, Designers, Architects: Art TV pioneer Vernissage TV provides you with an authentic insight into the world of contemporary fine arts, design and architecture. With its two main series “No Comment“ and “Interviews“, art tv channel VernissageTV attends opening receptions of exhibitions worldwide, interviews artists, designers, architects. VTV provides art lovers with news, reports and features from the international art scene. VernissageTV: the window to the art world. Das Fenster zur Kunstwelt. La fenêtre sur le monde de l’art. A janela para o mundo da arte. La ventana al mundo del arte. نافذة على عالم الفن. 到艺术世界的窗口。Окно в мир искусства. Since 2005.