allora & calzadilla at fondazione nicola trussardi

allora & calzadilla at fondazione nicola trussardi
image © designboom

allora & calzadilla: fault lines
fondazione nicola trussardi, milan
now through november 24th, 2013

american artists jennifer allora and guillermo calzadilla are among the most diverse and active personalities in the international art world, traversing a hybrid of creative releases including performance, installation, sculpture, and visual media. their fugue between the limits and contradictions of the global world and their practice of personifying the ideas of nationalism, and social change composes an impressive collection of interdisciplinary and experimental artwork. it is this approach that informed their current exhibition ‘fault lines’ for fondazione nicola trussardi. set in the grandiose seventeenth century palazzo cusani in milan, the site responsive solo show creates a narrative with both the venue’s architecture and historical context, as the opulent baroque rooms transpose into live vignettes. thematically, music and sound play monumental roles in the show’s orchestration. dispersed throughout the palazzo are a medley of instrumental performances: a company of opera singers hidden within tunnel-like passageways of a towering sculpture in the courtyard; a trumpet player ascending and descending the staircase leading to the main exhibition spaces; a pianist trapped in a cut-out void at his instrument’s core.

the pianist plays a musical composition while inside his instrument
image © designboom

arguably one of the exhibition’s most impressive installments is ‘stop, repair, prepare’. allora & caladilla have modified a grand piano by carving a circular hole directly through it. once an hour, a pianist standing within the void, behind the keyboard, angles over the keys and attempts to play variations of ‘ode to joy’. performing upside down and backwards, the musicaian additionally mobilizes, carrying the massive instrument around his waist throughout the room.

the musician leans over the piano to play, while simultaneously walking around the space
image © designboom

the cut hole at the core of the piano
image © designboom

upon entering the palazzo’s sumptuous courtyard, echoing operatic voices reverberate throughout the space, initially mystifying visitors as their source is imperceivable. it becomes evident as one approaches that the choral tones are from human singers, hidden within the small tunnels and tubes of a towering foam and plaster sculpture at the court’s core. ‘sediments, sentiments (figures of speech)’ is a live performance delivered by fourteen opera singers, who casually enact the musical compositions, occasionally peeking out from their respective voids to glance at the crowd of mesmerized viewers.

the sculptural artwork at the courtyard’s core, hiding a collection of opera singers in its tunnels
image © designboom

an opera singer peeks out from a tunnel within the massive sculpture
image © designboom

a male singer enacts the operatic composition
image © designboom

singers glancing and stretching in the sculpture
image © designboom

portrait of guillermo calzadilla and jennifer allora
image © designboom

watch the film below by vernissage tv for a video tour of the exhibition rooms and the performances happening inside:

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