Artists

Massimo Bartolini

Press release

National Participation - Italy

Due qui / To Hear is an intentionally unfaithful translation, a conscious mistake. Playing on the homophones “two here” (in Italian, due qui) and “to hear,” it points to the relational nature of sound. We come together to listen to ourselves and to the Other: be it a human being, a natural form, or a machine. And considering that, in Bartolini’s view, art is a path to knowledge, “lending an ear” might serve as a tool for self-improvement.

Playing on the homophones “two here” (in Italian, due qui) and “to hear,” the title of this project suggests how hearing—or even better, listening—is an action directed towards others. For that matter, meeting and listening, relation and sound, go hand in hand here, as they have throughout the three decades of Massimo Bartolini’s practice. “We hear in order to listen,” as Pauline Oliveros once wrote. In Due qui / To Hear, the acoustic paradigm should be seen 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, a natural form. If, in Bartolini’s view, art is a path to knowledge, the project suggests that “lending an ear” could be a tool for self-improvement within the community of this world.

Commissioners: Angelo Piero Cappello, Direttore Generale Creatività Contemporanea, Ministero della Cultura
Curator: Luca Cerizza