Written by Samantha de Martin
“Two years ago, after the first lockdown," explains Avital, "each of us came out of our lair, feeling alienated from the others. In a hundred days, my whole future life was like erased. I felt extremely lost, but it was during that time that the caged animal came out, along with the will to live, to do something meaningful. The Reggio Parma Festival was an opportunity to reinvent myself through experimentation and research'. A research that, as the artist himself confesses, and as is evident in his speeches, "does not originate as a form of extreme gentrification, but as a dialogue that matures and makes its way within the human fabric and its history.”
Written by Carla Macrì
“The creative dominus of The Bestiary of the Earth, Yuval Avital, has in fact developed exhibitions accompanied by music and immersive moments that often break the physical boundary between the work and the spectator, to allow the latter to walk, sit, meditate or mirror himself within the work. Evidence of the transversal and multidisciplinary aspect of the project was delivered at the end of the press conference through the inauguration of Anatomie squisite, a participatory monographic exhibition in close dialogue with fossils, stuffed animals and objects belonging to the collection of the Civic Museums, in particular the collection of Lazzaro Spallanzani. It is also participatory because the veins and arteries that emerge from the rooms of the Museum have been created thanks to the scenic and tailoring skills of the Fondazione i Teatri di Reggio Emilia. It is a brightly coloured and contrasting exhibition characterised by the presence of hybrid creatures and materials, with a surrealist and disturbing appearance that make us reflect on the complex functionality of the human body and the organs that compose it. During the day, the sound installation Il Canto dello Zooforo was inaugurated at the Casa del Suono and Chiesa di Sant'Elisabetta in Parma. The title comes from the bas-reliefs of Benedetto Antelami's Zooforo, the source of inspiration for Avital's graphic score interpreted by the voices of the children of the Balducci municipal infant school in Reggio Emilia. It is a monumental material sculpture resembling a female belly that welcomes spectators inside it to experience an impromptu moment of profound reconnection with themselves. The work stems from a question posed by the artist: "in the womb are we already human?". Entering inside the installation implies an attempt to glimpse that union between man and animal through a journey towards a deep and forgotten self. The external part of the installation features another composition inspired by St. Francis' Canticle of the Creatures, performed by the Children's Voices Choir of the Parma Theatre.”
“With Il Bestiario della Terra (The Bestiary of the Earth), the artist tackles the sense of incompleteness felt by man, a feeling that is transformed into a propulsive drive to research and discover the innermost folds of the ego, in a hybridisation or contamination with the 'bestial' aspect inherent in each of us. Where does humanity end and bestiality begin? Where does the monster hide, and above all who is he? The artist seeks to answer these questions in a multifaceted experiential and multimedia process, consisting of dozens of new works including performances, video art, visual and photographic works, sculptures, scores, theatrical staging and installations.”
Written by Federica Porro
“Entering the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, these unions coexist within an unconventional vision: 'Anatomie squisite' is in fact the first monographic exhibition that opens the programme, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature that distinguishes the artist. Taking inspiration from the Surrealists' exquisite corpses, Avital has created a series of grotesque and imaginary creatures: collaborating with different artistic and craft realities of the territory in the sign of relational art, the museum's showcases are enriched with drawings, paintings and installations that explore the mysterious areas where animal and human meet, losing themselves in a dream that extends to everyday life. Then the taxidermies from the Civic Museums' collection are also welcomed with astonishment and pleasure. By entering the artist's orbit, they offer a journey through cross-references, hybridisations and interdisciplinary creations. The meta-bodies of these fantastic animals are the fuse of ironic and light-hearted narratives that the spectator can carry on independently with a smile of an art that wisely manages to amuse.”
“Yuval Avital's Anatomie squisiste at the Civic Museums of Reggio Emilia is the exhibition that opens The Bestiary of the Earth of the Reggio Parma Festival: a universe of creatures and creations that take the public on an unprecedented journey through the spaces of the Museums to discover its exquisite anatomies. The exhibition marks a twofold starting point in Avital's investigation of the human-animal: on the one hand it asks "what is a body, an organ? How do we perceive a set of things as a body? What are the boundaries between scientific anatomy and the anatomy of art?"; on the other hand, in the logic that unites the exhibitions in the program, it represents the first stage, that of childhood - i.e. play, dream, amazement, the subconscious.”
Written by Giulia Bassi
“This is how the creator, the eclectic artist Yuval Avital, presents "The Bestiary of the Earth", a project of the Reggio Parma Festival that opens a path, from June to December, of exhibitions, special events, performances, and installations between Parma and Reggio Emilia. Avital asks: "So where does humanity end and bestiality begin? Where is the monster hiding, and above all who is he? The artist attempts to answer these questions in a multifaceted experiential and multimedia process, a true art rite, composed of dozens of new works including performances, videoart, visual and photographic works, sculptures, scores, theatrical staging and installations.”
“Bestiaries, typical medieval treatises collecting descriptions of real and fantastic animals, have always been an iconographic source for artists. Beyond the aesthetic role of friezes and tempera paintings, this type of work conveys complex metaphysical and psychological messages, addressing the themes of good and evil, chaos and order, human and animal identity, reality and dreams. With The Bestiary of the Earth, Avital immerses himself in an unconventional investigation into the sense of incompleteness felt by man, a feeling that is transformed into a propulsive drive to seek out and discover the innermost folds of the Ego, in a hybridization or contamination with the animal nested within each of us.”
“As the starting point of the macro-opera Bestiary of the Earth, project of the year of the Reggio Parma Festival, the artist Yuval Avital has created for the Casa del Suono in Parma The Song of the Zooforo, an unprecedented icono-sound installation. The composition is strongly inspired by the bas-reliefs of the Zooforo by Benedetto Antelami sculpted on the walls of the Baptistery of Parma, whose creatures, both real and imaginary, transposed by Avital into a graphic score, were made to be interpreted by the children of the Ernesto Balducci municipal infant school of Reggio Emilia, in a mimic action of voice. Their verses echo inside a monumental material sculpture that the public is invited to enter. Made from hundreds of metres of hand-dyed fabric, it symbolises a female womb understood as the manifestation of a principle from which every being, whether human or animal, comes.” Read more...
“The exhibition marks a twofold point of departure in Yuval Avital's investigation of the human-animal; on the one hand, it asks: "what is a body, an organ? How do we perceive a set of things as a body? What are the boundaries between scientific anatomy and the anatomy of art?"; on the other hand, in the logic that unites the exhibitions in the program, it represents the first stage, that of childhood - hence play, dream, wonder, the subconscious.”
“The exhibition marks a twofold point of departure in Avital's investigation of the human-animal; on the one hand, it asks: "what is a body, an organ? How do we perceive a set of things as a body? What are the boundaries between scientific anatomy and the anatomy of art?"; on the other hand, in the logic that unites the exhibitions in the program, it represents the first stage, that of childhood - hence play, dream, wonder, the subconscious.” Read more…
“Avital, with “Il Bestiario della Terra”, dives into an unconventional investigation about the sense of incompleteness felt by humans, a feeling which turns into a propulsive thrust to look for and discover the innermost fold of the Ego, in a hybridization or contamination with the animal nested in each of us. So where does humanity end and where does bestiality begin? Where is the monster hiding and, above all, who is it? The artist tries to answer to these questions through a multifaceted, experiential and multimedia process, a real artistic ritual composed by dozens of unpublished works, from performances, videoart, visual and photographic works to sculptures, scores, theatrical staging and installations.” Read more…
“This is how "Bestiary of the Earth" was born, that will be showcased in Parma and Reggio Emilia from June to December 2022, a powerful and evocative revisitation of the traditions that have strongly characterised the artistic, religious and scientific culture of this part of Emilia since the Middle Ages. The project, of great expressive capacity, is realised in close collaboration with the three theatre foundations that are members of the Reggio Parma Festival, Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma and Fondazione Teatro Due di Parma, with which the artist has shared the elaboration and definition of every single activity, in a virtuous interpenetration of talents and professions.” Read more…
Written by Virginia De Pamphilis
“A journey into the multidisciplinary narration of the artist that runs on the thread of the concepts of identity/ subconscious, darkness/ light and love/ desire.
The exhibition project E T E R E, as well as all the large-scale works of Avital, is an immersive and totalizing environment in which different languages and expressive tools ranging from the most traditional techniques converge, up to the most innovative and interdisciplinary creations such as "icon-sonic sculptures”, defined as such by the artist since the beginning of his research.”
Written by Simona Spaventa
“From the center of the Earth, where the vibrations of the Heart of Etna are heard, up through four levels and as many microcosms exploring the unconscious, to the Source of the transcendent […].
There [at Building Gallery, Milan] the volcanic Yuval Avital has disseminated more than one hundred works - 129 to be precise - various by technique, size, impact. After all, eclecticism is the figure of this restless artist [...]”
Written by Silvia Calvi
“Among the works on display there is “Family in the Holy Land”, a painting depicting a woman who like a hired mourner raises her hands to the sky, a man without color but with a very red heart, a child and a cat.
From the ground floor the exhibition develops through a story in four chapters. The solo exhibition E T E R E by the artist and composer Yuval Avital starts from a Jewish fairy tale, 'The Heart and the Source' (from 'The Tale of the Seven Beggars')”.
Foreign Bodies Icons by Yuval Avital,
Opening Performance at Woolbridge Gallery with Accademia and Teatro alla Scala dancers
Performing dancer:
Stefania Ballone, Chiara Amazio, Charlotte Lamotte, Eliz Erkut, Endi Bahaj, Giuseppe Dagostino, Mattia Tortora
PAOLA GUABELLO
PUBBLICATO IL
09 Ottobre 2020
Era l’evento d’autunno. In un’annata così avara di occasioni culturali, l’inaugurazione della galleria Woolbridge all’ex lanificio Pria, aveva stuzzicato la città scatenando la curiosità di collezionisti, appassionati d’arte e operatori culturali. L’asse del Cervo, proprio dove l’alluvione ne ha castigato le sponde alle porte di Biella, sempre di più sta diventando punto di riferimento della creatività laniera. Dal lanificio Cerruti, in cui nascono tessuti di eccellenza, alla sede del Terzo Paradiso di Michelangelo Pistoletto, da Sellalab dove fioriscono le idee imprenditoriali all’avanguardia, fino al grande complesso di Cittadellarte e alla Serralunga che realizza elementi di arredamento di design. E a monte del ponte della Maddalena, la nuova galleria che aprirà le sue porte sabato nel tardo pomeriggio. Ma contrariamente a quanto avevano previsto in un primo tempo gli organizzatori che hanno acquisito il grande spazio (circa 20 mila metri quadrati affacciati sul Cervo e tutti completamente ristrutturati), in considerazione dell’emergenza sanitaria legata al covid, la cerimonia si svolgerà rigorosamente in forma privata.
«L’invito all’evento allargato ad alcune centinaia di persone, sarà ristretto ai possessori di invito - spiega il gallerista Jean Le Guyader. La galleria verrà poi aperta al pubblico nelle prossime settimane in modo da consentire le visite in piena sicurezza». Il programma dell’inaugurazione prevede una performance dei danzatori dell’Accademia e Teatro alla Scala di Milano Stefania Ballone, Charlotte Lamotte, Mattia Tortora, Eliz Erkut e Giuseppe Dagostino che interpreteranno, danzando in dialogo con le opere d’arte, una coreografia dell’artista israeliano Yuval Avital dal titolo Foreign Bodies Icons, presentata per la prima volta in Italia. L’ambiziosa operazione è stata finanziata dal collezionista francopiemontese, Patrick Saletta e prevede in futuro ulteriori sviluppi estesi anche al centro città.
Stories full of emotions from all over the globe, told not with words but with voice and body.
“Rivers" is the performance for a vocal crowd of refugees and loudspeakers by Yuval Avital, in which the voice become an instrument of beauty, truthfulness and connectivity.
