TRALLALERO
Artist I Luca Vitone
Curator I Daniele Perra
September 20, 2007, 8 pm
Fossati Esterni del Castello Sforzesco, Milan<
Sponsored by Roberto Del Carlo
www.robertodelcarlo.it
On Thursday, September 20, 2007, in Milan at the Fossati Esterni del Castello Sforzesco it will be possible to assist in Trallalero, a site-specific project by Luca Vitone, curated by Daniele Perra.
The event has been made possible thanks to the support of Roberto Del Carlo, a Made in Italy accessories line, which after the events Hans Schabus and the Very Pleasure (March 2006, Laboratori del Teatro alla Scala of Milan) and Project Room I A show without works (March 2005, Spazio Lima, Milan) promotes contemporary art for the third consecutive year, supporting the entire project on the occasion of MICAM SHOEVENT-International Shoe Exposition (September 20-23, 2007). The appointment with Trallalero precedes the inauguration of Luca Vitone’s solo show, which will be held starting from September 21, 2007, at the Emi Fontana gallery in Milan.
Luca Vitone has invited, for the first time, all the existing trallalero teams in Genoa (A Lanterna, Gruppo Spontaneo Trallalero, Gruppo Canterini Val Bisagno, I Giovani Canterini di Sant’Olcese, La Squadra) to perform inside the Fossati Esterni del Castello Sforzesco during the evening of September 20, beginning at 8:00 pm. The audience will not be able to physically interact with the singers, but can take part in the performance from the terraces of the moat, observing the various groups, which will be positioned along the entire wall of the castle, “drawing close to them” only by listening.
In Italy’s shared musical heritage, the trallalero is among the most evocative, intimate, and unrepeatable examples of popular song. It represents a style of multivoice rhythm imitating instruments that was most developed and elaborated in the urban area of Genoa, though it is also present throughout the Liguria region. The fundamental structure of the trallalero consists in five voices: tenor (u primmu), falsetto (u segundu or u cuntretu), baritone (u cuntrubassu), guitar voice (imitation of the instrument with a nasal sound emitted by placing the palm of the hand in front of the lips), deep bass. The participants (there have to be at least seven singers for each team) gather in a closed circle so that they can look at one another in order to coordinate the cues, thereby creating a “vocal island.” The final, wordless refrain, which lends its name to this typically Genoese form of vocal expression, determines the end, in which the purely verbal element gives way to sound.
Born in Genoa but currently residing and working in Milan, the artist Luca Vitone is interested in places, not only from the point of view of architecture, but rather from a social space, community, perspective in which it is possible to perceive everyday life, as exemplified by his choice of the Fossati Esterni del Castello Sforzesco in Milan for his Trallalero project. This castle is one of Milan’s most beloved monuments, for centuries the protagonist of fateful events, becoming in the eyes of its citizens a symbol of power exerted by the Lords of Milan or foreign invaders. It was only during the twentieth century that it became a place for culture, destined to safeguard Lombard art.
Luca Vitone’s art, aimed at rediscovering forgotten practices united in his personal geography, invites us to recognize something we are already familiar with, challenging the conventions of short-lived and ephemeral memory. The artist explains: “I’m against creating monuments that represent memory or power through an image that looms above and frightens. I’m interested in creating something that invites people to participate. In the case of the Trallalero project, sound flows like water, and like water it becomes a metaphor for life. Also, coming from the moat, as if originating from an archeological dig, it literally represents the metaphor ‘sounds from the earth,’ transforming song into the memory of material culture from the place.”
Luca Vitone was born in Genoa in 1964. His works have been shown in public and private spaces including: French Academy, Villa Medici, Rome (1999), OK Centrum, Linz, solo show (1999); P.S. 1, New York, solo show, (2000); Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, solo show (2000); Museo Pecci di Prato, Prato (2000); PAC, Milan (2000); Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2001); Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, Munich (2001); National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow (2002); MAMCO, Geneva (2003); 2nd Bienal de Valencia, Valencia (2003); 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (2003); ARC Musée d’Arte Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2003); Centro per lArte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, solo show (2004); OK Centrum, Linz (2004); Villa Arson, Nice (2004); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2005); PAC, Milan (2006); Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg, solo show, (2006); MART, Rovereto, solo show (2007). A solo show is scheduled in November at the OK Centrum of Linz.
Daniele Perra is an art critic and curator. After graduating from the University of Bologna (D.A.M.S — Department of Art, Music, and Performance), he became interested in the relationship between visual art and technology. He taught a course on the Phenomenology of Contemporary Art at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan (2004-2005), was Managing Editor of “tema celeste” (1999-2007), and collaborated from 2000 to 2006 with “Il Sole24ORE” (Sunday issue). In 2006, he was part of the selection committee for the Premio Furla and for the Premio Artegiovane “Milano e Torino incontrano … l’Arte.” Among the shows he has curated: Shahryar Nashat in collaboration with the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Cantieri Culturali ex-Macelli, Prato (2003), Project Room. A show without works (Spazio Lima, Milan, 2005), then traveling to La Box Bourges, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges, and Hans Schabus and the Very Pleasure (Laboratori del Teatro alla Scala of Milan, 2006). He has authored the book Impatto Digitale. Dall’immagine elaborata all’immagine partecipata: il computer nell’arte contemporanea, to be released in September for the study center and publishing house Baskerville of Bologna. He lives and works in Milan.
ROBERTO DEL CARLO: the passion for design, the noteworthy technical expertise in making shoes and the love for handmade products make up the philosophy of Roberto Del Carlo and the accessories line that bears his name. The Roberto Del Carlo s.r.l. company was founded in the late 1990s by the joined efforts of Roberto Del Carlo and Luigi Pierro, with the intention of exclusively developing and consolidating the ideas of Roberto. This goal was attained by means of a precise policy: extreme product care and a selected commercial distribution. Roberto Del Carlo is one of the brands most representative of Made in Italy throughout the world.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Title: TRALLALERO
Artist: Luca Vitone
Curator: Daniele Perra
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2007
Location: Fossati Esterni del Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Hours: 8 pm
Entrance: free
Info: And’ Studio, tel. +39 02 45487375
Press Offices:
Ilaria Gianoli tel. +39 333 6317344 ilariagianoli@tin.it
Marta Colombo tel. +39 340 3442805 martacolombo@gmail.com
And’ Studio Andrea Pilastro: tel. +39 02 45487375 andreapilastro@andstudio.it