Born in Jerusalem in 1977 and living in Milan, Yuval Avital is considered as one of the most prominent multimedia artists of Italy. Both a poliedric 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, theatres and museums, challenging the traditional crystallized categories that separate the arts.
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 museums, art foundations, venues and art events such as 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.
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 - 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 presented digitally in MANIFESTA 13 Marseille as a part of Real Utopias exhibition; presented also as a large scale physical exhibition at LOOP Festival: City Screen 2021 in Barcelona.
Chosen performed / exhibited works
(2023-2010)
Foreign Bodies - collective show, curator Valentina Buzzi
Gwangju Biennale, Italian pavilion, Republic of Korea
5 parallel projections, loudspeakers and murals.
April 23 -July 9, 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.
February 25 - April 23, 2023
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.
November 18 - December, 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.
October 1 - November 13, 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.
September 10 - October 30, 2022
LESSICO ANIMALE. PROLOGO - Il Bestiario della Terra solo exhibition, curator Cristiano Leone
APE Museo, Parma, Italy
Photography, video art, sound sculptures, installations.
July 7 - October 16, 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.
June 8 - November 27, 2022
SONG OF THE CHIMERAS - solo exhibition
Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
46 artworks; paintings, photography, video artworks and sound sculptures.
24 February 2022- 23 April, 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)
9 - 20 February, 2022
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.
13 - 22 November, 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
4 - 19 September, 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.
8 April - 26 June, 2021
OPENING PERFORMANCE WITH FOREIGN BODIES ACTION - performance
Woolbridge Gallery, Biella, Italy
Opening performance of Woolbridge Gallery with Accademia alla Scala dancers.
3 October, 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.
12 - 20 September, 2020
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.
March, 2020 - Ongoing
ANGELS collective exhibition, curator Ayşe Pınar Akalın
Saint Antoine Church, Istanbul, Turkey
Sound Sculpture, 2 large-scale prints, 20 paintings.
17 December, 2019 - 30 January, 2020
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.
(2016 - 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).
1 December, 2018 - 1 December, 2019
NEPHILIM - solo exhibition
Marino Marini Museum, Florence, Italy
Solo exhibition of 60 sound masks sculptures created in dialogue with 24 master artisans
3 October, 2019 - 31 December, 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.
1 September, 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.
Inauguration 14 July, 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.
3 July - 1 September, 2019
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.
July - August, 2015
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.
2014 - 2016
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.
February, 2013
OTOT symphonic, video & live electronics
Teatro Sociale di Como, Italy
For chamber orchestra, 5 percussions, 3 accordions, video & live electronics.
January, 2013
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.
October, 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.
January, 2012
MISE EN ABÎME - Massive Sonic Work
Premiere RAI studios, Milan, Italy
For a crowd of 100 persons, 34 accordions, soloists & 4 conductors.
February, 2011
SAMARITANS - Icon-Sonic opera n.2
MiTo SettembreMusica Festival, Teatro Nuovo, Milan, Italy
For a Samaritan vocal choir, ensemble, video, electronics, stage design.
September, 2010
