Com'è bello far l'amore da Trieste in giù #2

Transcription

Opening/closing song: ⋆｡°✩ Amanda Lear, “Ho fatto l’amore con me,” 1980 ✩°｡⋆

Dear listeners, welcome back to CANALE MILVA: the web radio channel that since summer 2020 has been exploring the format of the sound show starting with some Italian music goodies chosen for you by Giada Olivotto and Camilla Paolino and reinterpreted by the visual artists we invite from time to time. The show we are presenting today, introduced by the notes of “Ho fatto l’amore con me” by the legendary Amanda Lear, is the second in the column “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù,” which began in the spring of 2021 following a series of lockdowns that, at least in Italy, made it difficult to meet and therefore, in many cases, to make love. The title of the column, as more experienced listeners will have guessed, is taken from the famous “Tanti Auguri”: an evergreen of Italian song, as well as an anthem of the LGBTQ+ community, released in the late 1970s by the CBS record label and distributed by Messaggerie Musicali of Milan, as the seventeenth single by pop singer Raffaella Carrà. Before we begin listening to the sound pieces collected in this sound exhibition, let’s indulge in a moment of pleasure transported by the voice of a.k.a la raffa nazionale (National Raffa)!

⋆｡°✩ Raffaella Carrà, “Tanti Auguri,” 1978 ✩°｡⋆

We have just heard a few pieces of “Tanti Auguri,” which seem to allude in a way to the theme of sexual liberation and, in particular, the liberation of women’s sexuality, a theme for which there was much struggle in the two decades preceding the composition of this song. Recall that this single by Raffaella Carrà was first released in 1978, at a moment in history when new ways of thinking about and representing women’s bodies, sexuality, desire and pleasure were finally emerging, beyond the more traditional and normative sociocultural models, ushering in a reflection that is still ongoing in the contemporary moment.

A reflection that we wanted to share with the three women artists involved in this episode of “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù,” namely: Djellza Azemi, Rebecca Solari, and Val Minnig, who for the occasion collaborated with different artists, performers and researchers, thickening the network of encounters and exchanges that are kind of the beauty of CANALE MILVA. In response to our invitation, Djellza, Rebecca and Val told us stories of love and lovemaking, but also stories of learning how to do it, familiarizing oneself with one’s own sexuality and navigating the power relationships that encountering that of others can imply. Let’s hear these stories together.

After this introduction to our column “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù” we begin with the sound work of artist Djellza Azemi, who usually works through the medium of sculpture by questioning the poetic space of home and shelter. Indeed, through sculptures and found objects, she creates narratives around ideas of transmission and transgression. Djellza for CANALE MILVA collaborated with artist and musician Daisy Sane producing for us a sound piece entitled: “FirePlaces.” Their collaboration began back in 2021 when the two artists initiated a rock band project called “Goodbye To Relations,” in which Sunna Margret was also a part. Today, for CANALE MILVA, with Daisy on bass and Djellza’s vocals we can hear “FirePlaces,” a sound piece that portrays the history of various household objects. The track is rhythmically haunting and ambiguously sensual. Within this, sounds mix and couple with each other to give life to a domestic geography. And now let’s get lost with them, happy listening!

⋆｡°✩ Djellza Azemi, “FirePlaces,” 5m8s ✩°｡⋆

Thanks to Djellza Azemi and Daisy Sane for “FirePlaces,” which we just listened to. We now continue our listening with a piece that transports us from the domestic hearth to the streets of pleasure, as the title of the next piece we will hear suggests: “Pleasurestreet.” This is an unreleased work by artist Val Minnig, created in collaboration with researcher Michelle von Dach and inspired by Angie Waltie’s sex education lectures. The sound piece is about the relationship between sexuality, language and knowledge and prompts us to question the need to transform the way we talk and think about sexuality once it and our perceptions of it change. In fact, according to the principle that it is important to be able to name things in order to think about them and to make them exist, the same applies to a sexuality that wants to claim itself as autonomous and forge its own linguistic and thinking tools to assert and represent itself. Val, Michelle and Angie thus start from the “Dictionary of Sexuality” to work on their own vocabulary, and the following piece, a sort of pilot episode of a new radio program proposed by Val Minnig, is the result. Enjoy your listening!

⋆｡°✩ Val Minnig, “Pleasurestreet,” 3m4s ✩°｡⋆

Thank you Val, Angie and Michelle for opening a window to this new sound project. And now we end our sound exhibition today with a piece made by Rebecca Solari. Rebecca is a transdisciplinary artist originally from Ticino who lives between Amsterdam and Fribourg. Her practice is mainly based on the question of self-representation, with the intent and will to destroy established codes, thus exploring multiple social, gender and contextual identities. Rebecca is also a member of the electro-punk duo Crème Solaire and the music/performance project Fulmine. For CANALE MILVA, Rebecca proposed the sound piece “Freefight.” A collage that presents itself to us as something not immediately recognizable and dense with sounds that seem to make love to objects and creatures whose sex is unknown. In the scratchy quality of the sound Rebecca tampers with the stereotypical imagery of sexuality and so we find ourselves catapulted to hear someone touching or making love in a bar, in a room, on a bus. The interactions of the bodies involved act out with bumps, squeals, and enjoyment. A sweet combat emerging directly from the bodies of the FC BB project (Fan Club Belluard Bad Bonn, on the shores of Schiffenen Lake), also known as Crybaby Warrior, Pak Choi Kash, Diamond Ventura and The hammer Dynamite. “Freefight” is thus a collection of pro-sex sounds but also of confrontations, games, hierarchies and forces, all channeled toward a collective act of resistance. 

⋆｡°✩ Rebecca Solari, “Freefight,” 3m31s ✩°｡⋆

And that was Rebecca Solari with “Freefight”: the last sound piece in the exhibition “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù #2.” 

We would like to thank Rebecca and all the artists and their collaborators who participated in the making of this new installment of CANALE MILVA. We would also like to thank Lumpen Station again for their hospitality and the Magica Opalini Association for supporting our sound project. Finally, we are happy to remember our supporters Pro Helvetia, Canton Ticino – Swissloss Fund and who decided to help us in the production of the annual programming. We leave you once again in good company-the company of Amanda Lear-and look forward to the next installment. Stay tuned on lumpenstation.art: CANALE MILVA!

Opening/closing song: ⋆｡°✩ Amanda Lear, “Ho fatto l’amore con me,” 1980 ✩°｡⋆