Alla mattina appena alzata #2

Transcription

Welcome, dear listeners, to the second collective exhibition broadcasted on CANALE MILVA: a channel that intends to explore specifically the format of the sound exhibition, taking the moves from some gems of Italian music chosen for you by Giada Olivotto and Camilla Paolino and explored together with a series of visual artists invited to participate with a sound piece produced for the occasion.

This morning, we are happy to wish you a good start of the day with the second sound exhibition of the column “Alla mattina appena alzata” (in the morning, freshly awoke), dedicated to the version of “Bella Ciao” sung by Milva for CANZONISSIMA in 1971. This song has been sung since the XIX century by the Italian rice-workers (the so-called “mondine”) as a form of resistance to the exploitation of their labor power. The exhibition includes works by artists Nicole Colombo, Lisa Lurati, Noemi Pfister, Sara Ravelli, and Vera di Maus (with the Morning sound sisters), which expand the horizon outlined by artists Lula Broglio, Joo Young Hwang, Rada Kozelj and Claire van Lubeek (in collaboration with Crowdpleaser) in the first exhibition of the column, broadcast in August 2020 and which we invite you to listen to, in case you haven’t already.

As for the first sound exhibition mentioned by Camilla, Milva’s “Bella Ciao” will function as the starting point, or frame, for this second exhibition of the column “Alla mattina appena alzata.” The exhibition we are about to listen to has been realized for CANALE MILVA on Lumpen Station, thanks to the invitation of Andrea Marioni and thanks to the support of the Geneva-based artist-run space one gee in fog. And, most of all, big thanks to the artists who agreed to take part in it! We now leave you to the sounds, noises, and words composed for us by Nicole, Lisa, Noemi, Sara, and Vera. Happy listening!

Let’s start our listening with a sound piece by Swiss artist Vera Di Maus, titled “Le mattine appena alzate” (the mornings freshly awoke), referring to the figurehead of our sonic boat. For this occasion, Vera gifts us with a collage of sound fragments collected in collaboration with 23 other fellow artists. Vera asked her colleagues: how do you start your working days? What do you do when you wake up? How do you prepare for action? The answers have been patiently stitched together by Vera’s voice, which provides us with a storyline and gives us the opportunity to embark on a journey from dreamlike melody to a home dimension. Let’s fly like flies from house to house on the traces of all these micro-stories that make up this one big parallel morning.

⋆｡°✩ Vera Di Maus, “Le mattina appena alzate,” 23m14s ✩°｡⋆

We continue our listening with the piece “Mezzanotte al sole,” by Italian artist Sara Ravelli. This piece is presented as a mixtape composed of a series of famous Italian (but not only) pop songs and fragments of conversations that make up the artist’s affective soundscape, populated by a pantheon of female figures ranging from Mia Martini to Giuni Russo to Maria Sannia and others. Known soundtracks blend with spoken word and various web sourced material, giving life to controversial imagery punctuated by the strong and passionate personality of the singers. The starting point of the composition has been a reflection of the artist on the strength of a singing woman, especially perceived in live performances of the divas who have pierced or made vibrate with their voices the contemporary musical panorama.

⋆｡°✩ Sara Ravelli, “Mezzanotte al sole,” 18m20s ✩°｡⋆

Let’s continue listening now with Italian artist Nicole Colombo, who proposes “Nemesi” (nemesis), a sound piece with two main characters: the voice of the artist and her double, or an imaginary doppelganger who represents her nemesis, her bitter enemy. The sound piece is based on a narrative plot halfway between a manifesto and a confession recalling a slow rap song, in which the principles of collectivism and the workerist ideology are called into question in favor of a cold expression of cynicism resulting from daily toil and alienation. The sound traces of stage equipments and props project the mental image of a domestic environment, in a moment suspended between dawn and morning, before a new day of work begins.

⋆｡°✩ Nicole Colombo, “Nemesi,” 4m15s ✩°｡⋆

We continue our listening with the sound piece “Omaggio alle Mondine_may.01.2084” (tribute to the rice-workers_may.01.2084) by Swiss artist Noemi Pfister, evoking and paying homage to the tradition of the Italian rice-workers and their song with a chorus that transposes the notes of Bella Ciao to an imaginary and disastrous 2084 (any reference is not purely coincidental). This temporal shift projects us into a dystopian reality in which, according to the artist, “the exploitation of workers and natural resources is stronger than ever and the times when one could demonstrate in the streets are long gone”. In this scenario, which the artist retrieves from a distant future through an operation that could be described as “archaeological”, hybrid creatures, relegated to the muddy margins of a toxic and polluted megalopolis, raise their song of resistance. In this choral intervention, the voices of Serena and Giada Morgantini, Ambra Marcolli, Sabrina Musatti, Laura Gatto and Noemi herself intertwine, accompanied by the ukulele of Victoria Holdt―whom we thank for their precious contribution. Enjoy your listening!

⋆｡°✩ Noemi Pfister, “Omaggio alle Mondine_may.01.2087,” 2m55s ✩°｡⋆

This brings us to the last part of our sound exhibition with Swiss-Argentinian artist Lisa Lurati, who takes us on a walk through the songs that have characterized various struggles of resistance in Latin America over the past 50 years. This excursion will come down to the melodies that have accompanied the Chilean struggles of 2019, recently leading to the plebiscite for rewriting the constitution. These last two years have placed Chile in a historic moment of constitutional transformation for Latin America, which, in countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador, has led between 2008 and 2009 to the introduction of “Buen vivir,” fruit of the Andean cosmovision impling a life in multispecies harmony between individuals, communities, and nature. We leave you now to “Paseo sonoro” by Lisa Lurati.

⋆｡°✩ Lisa Lurati, “Paseo sonoro,” 28m12s ✩°｡⋆

And with the voice and the songs of Lisa Lurati we conclude the second sound exhibition of the column “Alla mattina appena alzata,” on-air on CANALE MILVA. We thank the artists for their exciting contributions and all the listeners who have followed us along the path structuring this second episode of “Alla mattina appena alzata.”

Thanks again to Lumpen Station for their hospitality and to one gee in fog for supporting our sound project, which came about in response to the inability to get together and produce exhibition projects in our art spaces during the covid-19 pandemic.

Closing song: ⋆｡°✩ Milva, “La filanda,” 1971 ✩°｡⋆