Invernomuto, Black Med, set up, performance view at Dansem Festival, Marseille, 2018.
BIENNALE ARTE 2019: PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME
About
Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi have been collaborating as Invernomuto since 2003. Although their work focuses primarily on the moving image and sound, they also integrate sculpture, performance and publishing into their practice. Invernomuto explores what remains of subcultures by moving through different media. Observed through unashamedly affected eyes, oral cultures and minor histories are laid open, their vernacular forms examined.
Performance
Black Med: Chapter IV. Listening session, 2019.
The Mediterranean Sea, once understood as a fluid entity aiding the formation of networks and exchange, is now the site of a humanitarian crisis and heated geopolitical dispute. Following scholar Alessandra Di Maio’s adaptation of Paul Gilroy’s concept of the Black Atlantic to the Mediterranean, Black Med (2019) aims at intercepting the trajectories that sounds trace when passing through this protean area. Divided into different chapters, the Black Med listening sessions are based on a DJ set supported by a series of projected slides containing theoretical texts and backstories referring to the musical pieces, grouped by elegiac themes. The sessions explore different journeys of sound movement, touching topics such as alternate uses of technology, migrations, peripheries and interspecies. For the occasion of Meetings on Art at Biennale Arte 2019, Invernomuto premieres the fourth chapter of Black Med, which expands their research around sound crossing the Mediterranean towards eastern routes, to include a detour in the Gulf area. In this session they will explore different ideas of futurism and undertake unexpected trajectories between Europe and the Middle East, trying to deconstruct older tropes of the Orientalist gaze.
Watch an excerpt of this performance here (from 00:37).
Interview
Read a conversation between the duo and Aaron Cezar, conducted in advance of the November programme, on My Art Guides.
Credits
Invernomuto’s participation in the performance programme of the 58th Venice Biennale of Art is supported by Alserkal Arts Foundation. Work supported by Manifesta 12, American Academy in Rome, and Pinksummer Gallery.