VENICE – As an extension of the exhibition project Two Here / To Hear of the Italian Pavilion at the 2024 Art BiennaleThe Public Program presents a fascinating sound performance entitled Ballad for Ten Trees. Designed by Massimo Bartolini and edited by Luca Cerizzathe event will be held Sunday 12 May 2024 within the suggestive International Sculpture Park Villa Fürstenberg in Mestre (Venice)exhibition space of Ifis Banksponsor of the Italian Pavilion.
Ballad for Ten Tree, un sensory exploration
Ten saxophonists – Edoardo Marraffa, Laura Agnusdei, Giulia Barba, Piero Bittolo Bon, Tobia Bondesan, Clarissa Durizzotto, Federico Eterno, Filippo Orefice, Guglielmo Pagnozzi and Ivan Pilati – will be the protagonists of this special performance. Each of them will perform a solo dedicated to a tree in the park, creating a complex polyphony that will propagate among the branches and avenues, inviting the public to an immersive and reflective sound experience.
The improvised sounds, coming from the musicians’ jazz repertoire, will intertwine with the rustling of leaves and the singing of birds, giving life to an intimate dialogue between man and nature. The public will be free to move around the park, creating their own personal sound sequence and letting themselves be guided by the emotions aroused by the music and the surrounding environment.
Massimo Bartolini, Ballad for a Tree, 2008, performance, Micamoca (Mariano Pichler collection), Berlin. Rudi Mahall Bass Clarinet. Photo © Nick Ash.
“Ballad for Ten Trees – explains Massimo Bartolini – is an attempt to communicate with something non-human: a person watches another person who attempts to communicate with a biological entity other than himself through sound. Music strikes, it is a message, movement, impact and creates an exchange: the sound is thus thrown from one side to the other and the place is essentially modified. It is also a work on the breath, on the breath, which is something that is shared with the plants. These will produce oxygen again starting from the saxophonist’s breath, united in the act of inhalation and exhalation. Another central element is the dispersion of the musicians, which leads the audience to move in the space and compose their own sequence. This gives life to a personal score created in absolute freedom, where even the sound is influenced by atmospheric agents in a whole that unites people and things present“.
“The sound performance, conceived by Massimo Bartolini and curated by Luca Cerizza – states the General Director of Contemporary Creativity and Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion Angelo Piero Cappello – creates an intimate dialogue between nature and art, offering visitors a unique sensorial experience through the performances of ten saxophonists, each dedicated to a tree in the park. We thank all those who collaborated to create this moment of culture and beauty, significantly contributing to the artistic dialogue that the Italian Pavilion promotes and enhances“.
“This first event of Ifis art, the container of all the artistic and cultural initiatives of Banca Ifis, – declaresErnesto Fürstenberg FassioPresident of Banca Ifis – hosts the performance by Massimo Bartolini who transforms the garden of Villa Fürstenberg into a stage, enhancing the relationship between human beings and nature, and is the first of other events that will take place within our Park in the coming months. A calendar of initiatives that testifies to our virtuous public-private collaboration, through the Biennale, and the ability of our Bank to generate an impact in the territories in which we operate”.
“The Public Program is conceived as an integral part of the Italian Pavilion project – underlines the curator, Luca Cerizza – and for us it represents the possibility of deepening some of the different levels of reading and the multiple themes that Massimo Bartolini’s work represents. Being able to leave the spaces of the Arsenale with such an iconic work from his career is certainly an important opportunity to enter into the artist’s poetics. In this case Bartolini proposes an extension and redefinition of Ballad for a Treein which the themes of sharing, Nature and relationships with others are masterfully represented“.
A park rich in art and nature
The Villa Fürstenberg International Sculpture Park, which extends for over 22 hectares of lush greenery, hosts works by contemporary Italian and international sculptors. Born from the will of President of Banca Ifis, Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassiothe park is an open-air museum accessible free to the public, an ideal place to walk, admire art and immerse yourself in the beauty of nature.
Vademecum
TWO HERE / TO HEAR
Italian Pavilion
International Art Exhibition – The Venice Biennale
20.04 – 24.11.2024
Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale, Venice
Commissioner: Angelo Piero Cappello
Curator: Luca Cerizza
Artist: Massimo Bartolini
Public Program – Banca Ifis Special Event
Massimo Bartolini, BALLAD FOR TEN TREES
Sunday 12 May 2024, from 3.30 pm
International Sculpture Park – Banca Ifis
Via Gatta, 11, 30174 Mestre (VE)
