Born in Jerusalem in 1977 and living in Milan, Yuval Avital investigates archetype and structure, ancestral and current human condition, nature and hybridity, ritual and science.
Both a polyhedric artist working with numerous mediums (paintings, photography, sculptures, sound installations, video art, performance) as a musical composer, Avital develops his works in a variety of spaces, including public venues, industrial archaeological sites, theaters and museums, challenging the traditional crystallized categories that separate the arts.
Each of Avital’s artworks is a unique experiential, poetic and emotional microcosm with its own identity. In his exhibitions, art events, immersive installations, total-operas, large-scale musical ‘rituals’, and concerts one can find dancers, contemporary music ensembles, masters of ancient cultures, recruited individuals or communities, multi-video projections, meditative tactile ambients, advanced technological instruments, archive materials, scientific data, sound-sculptures, large scale site specific murals and art films.
Avital’s artworks have been presented in 23 solo exhibitions and 12 group shows including MANIFESTA Biennial, Gwangju Biennale, Ostrale Dresden Biennale, Florence Biennale, Biennale Le Latitudini dell’Arte (Genoa/Gothenburg), Baths of Caracalla Rome, LOOP Festival - Barcelona, Palais de Tokyo, One World Trade Center New York, MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome, GAM Gallery of Modern Art - Turin, La Fabbrica de Cioccolato Foundation - Switzerland, Saint Antoine Church - Istanbul, Marino Marini Museum - Florence; National Science and Technology Museum “Leonardo da Vinci” – Milan, MUST Museums and Biscozzi | Rimabud Foundation - Lecce.
In addition he had presented two solo exhibitions in galleries: ETERE (2021) at Building - Milan and Song of the Chimeras at Gowen Contemporary - Geneva.
His compositions and stage works were presented opera houses, venues and festivals such as Parma Opera House Teatro Regio, TeatroDue Parma, Modena Freni-Pavarotti Opera House, Teatro Valli Reggio Emilia, Teatro Comunale di Como, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Centre Pompidou Paris, National Conservatory of China, Tel Aviv Museum, Palazzo Reale Milan, Warsaw Autumn Festival, London Design Festival, Brighton Festival, MiTo SettembreMusica Festival, Palazzo Reale Milan, RomaEuropa Festival, Matera European Capital of Culture.
In 2022 Avital was nominated as ‘artist-of-the-year’ by Reggio-Parma Festival (Italy’s biggest festival), creating a huge meta-opera titled ‘Bestiario della Terra’ (=‘Bestiary of the Earth’), composed of 4 large scale monographic exhibitions, installations and total take overs of the two cities main theatres and Opera houses.
Avital created Italy’s biggest sound sculpture until now - OPEN FENCE - a massive Sound- Sculpture of 320 tubular bells, 64 meters long and 4 meters high, playable by 80 visitors simultaneously (East End Studios, Milan).
He is also the author of the largest sound installation in Italian history - ALMA MATER -, covering an area of 1200 sqm with a “forest” of 140 loudspeakers, projections and light (Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan 2015).
His sound and visual artwork is HUMAN SIGNS, a Global participatory online dance and voice artwork, conceived in time of COVID-19 from March 2020 (ongoing), with the participation of over 200 artists from over 50 countries. It has been presented digitally in MANIFESTA 13 Marseille as a part of Real Utopias exhibition and as a large scale physical exhibition at LOOP Festival: City Screen 2021 in Barcelona.
Chosen performed / exhibited works
(2023-2010)
November 19, 2023 - February 4, 2024
BOSCO DI LECCE - solo show curator Lorenzo Madaro
MUST, Lecce, Italy
Large-scale paintings on texile, scluptures, icon-sonic artworks, photographies.
July 15, 2023 - January 7, 2024
LUCUS - solo show curator Massimo Guastella
Biscozzi | Rimbaud Foundation, Lecce, Italy
90 artworks between paintings, sound scluptures, plaster sculptures, lightbox and paintings on papier-mâché sculptures.
April 23 -July 9, 2023
FOREIGN BODIES - collective show, curator Valentina Buzzi Gwangju Biennale, Italian pavilion, Republic of Korea 5 parallel projections, loudspeakers and murals.
February 25 - April 23, 2023
LESSICO ANIMALE. MYSTERION - solo exhibition, curator Cristiano Leone Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Italy 2000 square meters exhibition composed of photographies, icon-sonic artworks, sound sculptures. 125x2,5 meters-long painting on wood; Opening with two days of live performances.
November 18 - December, 2022
MOSTRARIO - Il Bestiario della Terra Teatro Regio Parma, Teatro Due Parma, Teatro Valli, Reggio Emila, Italy. Sound Art, Video Art, Dance, Performance, Paintings, Sculpture, Score, Theatrical staging, Site- specific installations. October 1 -
November 13, 2022
MEMBRANE - Il Bestiario della Terra solo exhibition, curator Marina Dacci Chiostri di San Pietro, Reggio Emilia, Italy 156 artworks between paintings, drawings, sound sculptures and photographs.
September 10 - October 30, 2022
PERSONA - Il Bestiario della Terra solo exhibition, curator Chiara Canali Palazzo Marchi, Parma, Italy Exhibition created in dialogue with the halls and the collections of Palazzo Marchi, including sound sculptures, installations and video art.
July 7 - October 16, 2022
LESSICO ANIMALE. PROLOGO - Il Bestiario della Terra solo exhibition, curator Cristiano Leone APE Museo, Parma, Italy Photography, video art, sound sculptures, installations.
June 8 - November 27, 2022
ANATOMIE SQUISITE - Il Bestiario della Terra solo exhibition, curator Alessandro Gazzotti Musei Civici Reggio Emilia, Italy An artist installation created in dialogue with the Spallanzani Collection of the Civic Museums of Reggio Emilia. Sound art, paintings, sculptures and relational artworks created in collaboration with different artistic and craft realities of the city.
24 February 2022- 23 April, 2022
SONG OF THE CHIMERAS - solo exhibition Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland 46 artworks; paintings, photography, video artworks and sound sculptures.
9 - 20 February, 2022
DETOUR 2.0: A JOURNEY THROUGH CREATIVE CATALYSTS - collective exhibition Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France Organised by Moleskine Foundation, art notebook “What Comes First”, (2021)
13 - 22 November, 2021
HUMAN_SIGNS_LOOP/ED - solo exhibition, curated by Savina Tarsitano Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture, Barcelona, Spain, LOOP Festival An immersive polyptych installation of 7 parallel projections, loudspeakers, Domestic Grids, chalk drawings and an experience room.
4 - 19 September, 2021
MIKVÉ (Holy Bath) - site specific installation - Milan Design and Art Week and Miart, Bagni Misteriosi - Parenti Art & Design District, Milan, Italy 15 sound sculptures in a site specific
8 April - 26 June, 2021
E T E R E - solo exhibition, curated by Annette Hofmann BUILDING, Milan, Italy 120 artworks, from paintings, photography, video artworks and sound sculptures.
3 October, 2020
OPENING PERFORMANCE WITH FOREIGN BODIES ACTION - performance Woolbridge Gallery, Biella, Italy Opening performance of Woolbridge Gallery with Accademia alla Scala dancers.
12 - 20 September, 2020
MEDITATIONS ON THEATRUM MUNDI - electro-acoustic composition LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL, MSCTY EXPO, 2020 “Meditations on ‘Theatrum Mundi’” is a sonic response in 12 movements by Yuval Avital to Daniel Libeskind’s “Theatrum Mundi”, 1983, a series of 12 abstract works.
March, 2020 - Ongoing
HUMAN SIGNS - Global Multimedia Participatory artwork of voice and gesture Online; MANIFESTA 13 Biennial, Real Utopias exhibition Marseille Over 200 artists from over 50 countries, international multidisciplinary team, presented online through audiovisual ensembles on different formats and platforms.
17 December, 2019 - 30 January, 2020
ANGELS collective exhibition, curator Ayşe Pınar Akalın Saint Antoine Church, Istanbul, Turkey
Sound Sculpture, 2 large-scale prints, 20 paintings.
2016 - December, 2019
FUGA PERPETUA - Icon-Sonic Opera Teatro Comunale “L. Pavarotti” Modena, Italy; Brighton Festival, UK; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen, Germany; Ethos Melos International Festival of Contemporary Music, Slovakia For an ensemble, visuals, mobile sound theater and a vocal crowd Performing: Meitar Ensemble. With the sponsorship of UNHCR.
1 December, 2018 - 1 December, 2019 ICON-SONIC POSTCARDS N.2, POSTCARDS FROM ROME - art-show, various curators MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome, Italy Filming set, megaphone choirs, itinerary loudspeaker, flash mobs, light-boxes , audio, video and paper documents, Icon-sonic installation (final step).
3 October, 2019 - 31 December, 2019
NEPHILIM - solo exhibition Marino Marini Museum, Florence, Italy Solo exhibition of 60 sound masks sculptures created in dialogue with 24 master artisans
1 September, 2019
#URLA Massive Sonic Work / meta-parade Open Sound Festival, official main event of Matera 2019, European Capital of Culture, Italy. Massive Sonic Work n.6 for 300 performers, itinerary geographical score for the entire city center.
Inauguration 14 July, 2019
THE RATTLES GARDEN - permanent sound sculpture Mulinum San Floro, Calabria, Italy Permanent 1500 square meters of a Participative Sound Sculpture composed of 50 iron sculptures and 180 bells of the Mediterranean.
3 July - 1 September, 2019
OPENING AND MAIN EVENT OF OSTRALE BIENNALE Ostrale Art Biennale, Dresden, Germany 2 large-scale installations, a photographic section, live performance opening event of the Biennial.
July - August, 2015
ALMA MATER - Icon-Sonic installation Cattedrale of Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy For a forest of 140 loudspeakers, legendary etoile of Teatro Alla Scala e lacemakers, in dialogue with Il Terzo Paradiso by Michelangelo Pistoletto.
2014 - 2016
REKA - Massive Sonic Work MiTo SettembreMusica, Milan, Italy and Warsaw Autumn Festival, Poland, Vali Theater Reggio Emilia For six traditional singers, two percussions and a crowd of hundreds of voices. Commissioned by Warsaw Autumn Festival.
February, 2013
KARAGATAN - Massive Sonic Work Closing event of Tunog- Tugan 1st International Gong & Bamboo Festival, Dipolog city, Philippines For 100 traditional performers of gong & metal percussions from 10 countries of South East Asia.
January, 2013
OTOT symphonic, video & live electronics Teatro Sociale di Como, Italy For chamber orchestra, 5 percussions, 3 accordions, video & live electronics.
October, 2012
UNFOLDING SPACE Chamber music, video & electronics BergamoScienza Festival, Italy Concerto for electric guitar, live electronics, video and sonic translations of the cosmic space. In collaboration with NASA & ESA scientists.
January, 2012
GARON Massive Sonic Work Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner closing event at La Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy For 45 tubas, 6 percussions, choir, vocal soloists & live electronics.
February, 2011
MISE EN ABÎME - Massive Sonic Work Premiere RAI studios, Milan, Italy For a crowd of 100 persons, 34 accordions, soloists & 4 conductors.
September, 2010
SAMARITANS - Icon-Sonic opera n.2 MiTo SettembreMusica Festival, Teatro Nuovo, Milan, Italy For a Samaritan vocal choir, ensemble, video, electronics, stage design.
