Audio Control Turn on Yuval's sonic flow

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Audio Control Turn on Yuval's sonic flow
Audio Control

Solo exhibition

Il Bestiario della Terra – Reggio Parma Festival 2022 & Parma 360
Palazzo Marchi, Parma, Italy – September 10 – October 30, 2022

The exhibition is a journey through the magnificent halls and collections of Palazzo Marchi in which, in a dialogue with the space, the artist has created site-specific installations including a variety of artworks featuring Avital’s Sonic Masks, sound art, video art, photography and performance.

HUMAN PLASTIC – permeant installation
Inside the wooden model created by architect Petitot and his pupils, Yuval Avital places 50 prints on transparent Plexiglas of varying sizes. These prints depict characters from the ‘Delizie Farnesiane’ engravings, showing scenes from the court of Francesco and Antonio Farnese. The characters, emerging from 18th-century everyday life, come to life within the three-dimensional reproduction of the small temple, creating a theater of interactions.

EXODUS HALL
In the center of the room a wool carpet of masks, forming an ascension path on an open staircase. Yuval Avital has placed human miniatures from various origins (Parma, Italy, and Asia) from the Palazzo Marchi collection along this path, all facing away from the viewer to symbolize humanity’s journey toward the unknown. To the right, a statue of a Moor gazes perplexedly at a volume about the wedding of Ferdinand of Bourbon and Maria Amalia, reflecting on the scene and perhaps our present.

RIVERS ICONS IN TRASPARENCE – permanent installation
On the pages of volumes featuring Petitot’s drawings and Benigno Bossi’s engravings, Yuval Avital integrates photographs from his “Rivers Icons” series. For the Palazzo Marchi itinerary, this series, created during performances in Biella (2015), Montelupo Fiorentino (2018), and the GAM in Turin (2020) includes 27 acetate prints of varying formats of migrants and asylum seekers interacting with vases and Greek-style masked figures, blending seamlessly through varying opacity levels until they almost disappear.

LULLABIES FOR THE LAND
In this sound installation, Yuval Avital presents a participatory work created in response to the outbreak of war in Ukraine with an open call to collect lullabies from Ukrainian women. The installation features a circle traced by Avital with yellow chalk, subtly visible on the 18th-century floor. Silver bowls filled with water reflect the blue sky, evoking the Ukrainian flag. The installation interacts with a wooden statuette of the Madonna inside the altar, representing the universal archetype of the mother.

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Massive Sonic Works:

/ˈmæsɪv ˈsɒnɪk wɜːrks/

Large-scale performances using collective participation to create powerful sound masses.

Yuval Avital’s “Massive Sonic Works” or “Opera di Massa Sonora” involves the creation of large-scale performances that utilize collective participation to craft a unique sound experience. These works focus on forming powerful sound masses through the collaboration of numerous performers, exploring new possibilities through sound rituals. The compositions often include graphic visual elements, written music, and easy-to-read instructions to allow interpretation by individuals without prior musical experience. This approach, sometimes involving hundreds of participants, aims to create what can be described as “crowd music.”

Some key works in Avital’s repertoire include:

– GARON (2012): An opera for 45 bass tubas do, percussions, and a crowd of performers.

– KARAGATAN (2013): A composition for 100 gongs and bamboo in the Philippines.

– REKA (2014): Commissioned by the Warsaw Autumn Festival and co-produced by the MiTo festival in Milan, involving traditional singers from unique cultures such as Tibetan, Zulu, Sardinian, Mongolian, and Samarkand traditions.

One of Avital’s significant compositions is MISE EN ABÎME, a milestone work that marks the beginning of his “Massive Sonic Works” series. Premiered in 2011, this composition involves a large ensemble of 100-200 non-musician vocalists, accordions, bass tubas, soprano, bass clarinet, percussions, didgeridoo, and conductors directing the performance in an immersive setup.

Another notable work is URLA, an immersive sonic experience with over 300 performers, showcasing diverse musical traditions in Matera, Italy. This piece combines traditional elements with modern instrumentation, theatrical actions, and innovative technological approaches, reflecting Yuval Avital’s interdisciplinary and transcultural artistic vision.

Yuval Avital’s creations blend complexity, cultural diversity, and technological innovation to create immersive and participatory sonic experiences that push the boundaries of traditional music composition and performance.