COM'È BELLO FAR L'AMORE DA TRIESTE IN GIÙ #3

Transcription

Opening song: ⋆｡°✩ Ornella Vanoni, “Ti voglio,” 1977 ✩°｡⋆

Dear listeners, welcome back to CANALE MILVA: the web radio platform that has been exploring the format of the sound exhibition since the summer 2020. The starting point of our sound exhibitions is always some classic of the Italian song, selected for you by Giada Olivotto and Camilla Paolino and re-interpreted by the visual artists whom we invite for the occasion. The show we are presenting today is the third in the column “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù,” which we initiated in the spring of 2021 following a series of lockdowns that, at least in Italy, made it difficult to meet and therefore, among other things, to make love. The title of the column, as our 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 LGBTQIA+ 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. Here you go:

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

As is our tradition, since we do this in every episode of this column, we have just listened to a few stanzas of “Tanti Auguri,” with its allusions to the theme of sexual liberation and, in particular, the liberation of women’s sexuality. We remind you 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 we wish to contribute to, together with the artists we invited to participate to this new episode of the column “Com’è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù,” namely: Gaia Del Santo, Luigi The Submissive Macho alias Louise Bonpaix, Marlène Charpentié, and the Partout Partout Collectif, whose sound pieces have been aired on CANALE MILVA on December 2, 2023, in a special live preview within the framework of the homonimous exhibition at LATERAL ROMA. In response to our invitation, Gaia, Luigi a.k.a. Louise, Marlène and the Partout Partout collective told us stories about love and making love, 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, which are also being presented in the frame of PULSAR: a project by IRMA REPUBLIC, that hosts the launch of our sound exhibition today in Bern. We thank IRMA REPUBLIC, Laurent, and LapTop Radio, and wish you alla a good listening!

Let us welcome the Zurich-based art collective Partout Partout, which, experimenting wirh a range of participatory and process-based practices, addresses questions of accessibility, social structures, identity, and feminism from an anti-capitalist perspective. Such topics are translated by the group into performances, happenings, and installations. Partout Partout’s main goal is to create spaces where people can meet and experience connection. For CANALE MILVA, Partout Partout produced the sound piece “Naked Truths and Radical Vulnerability: A Manifesto of Consent and Tenderness”: a composition in which the five entities composing the collective read and recite texts written in the form of a manifesto on queer pleasure. Their words are intended as tools for change, embracing unapologetic queer joy, pleasure in its many forms, and the flight of consensual touch. The strength of this sound piece rests on the focus it puts on solidarity, intimacy, and mutual trust. Naked truths and butterflies inhabit this sound piece, where the chains of shame are rejected, vulnerability is turned into power, and sadness and anger morph into instruments of empowerment. No longer silenced, no longer invisible. Let us therefore listen together to Partout Partout Collectif!

⋆｡°✩ Partout Partout Collectif, “Naked Truths and Radical Vulnerability: A Manifesto of Consent and Tenderness,” 18m29s ✩°｡⋆

Thanks again to Partout Partout for the sound piece “Naked Truths and Radical Vulnerability: A Manifesto of Consent and Tenderness.” We now continue our listening with “Luigi, le Bonbon et la Parisienne”: a sort of podcast within the podcast, which, lightheartedly and enthusiastically, introduces the listener to the figure of the drag king Luigi (The Submissive Macho), alter ego of the artist Louise Bonpaix. The piece is conceived as an autofiction, in which the recordings of Luigi and Louise’s performances are mixed with the sounds of eurobeat, that is, Luigi’s favorite musical genre. At some point, an enigmatic figure, who comes from the world of French variety shows and answers to the name of La Parisienne, enters the scene to tell us about Luigi, his constructiveness and his sexuality. And she would seem legitimized to do so, since she represents Luigi’s female Doppelgänger, which makes her the alter ego of Louise Bonpaix’s alter ego. All clear? So let’s dive together into this intricate relational dimension generated by the artist to reflect on the themes of gender, love, and the role of song in the transmission of feelings. Here it is: “Louis, le Bonbon et la Parisienne”!

⋆｡°✩ Louise Bonpaix & Luigi (The Submissive Macho), “Luigi, le Bonbon et la Parisienne,” 15m26s ✩°｡⋆

Many thanks to Luigi (The Submissive Macho) aka Louise Bonpaix for their sonic contribution. We continue our listening by welcoming Gaia del Santo, Zurich-based artist whose practice deals with forms of online self-representation and questions the morphing notions of personal and private within the age of social media and the attention economy. For CANALE MILVA, Gaia conceived the sound piece “girltalk,” the title of which refers to those modalities of everyday exchange that have been historically coded as feminine. The sound piece consists in an assemblage of various interviews involving some of the female musicians who marked the artist’s adolescence and came back to keep her company in 2023, as she confessed. During the interviews, the singers touch on topics ranging from relationships, fashion, the implications of being socialized as women, the challenges of being an artist. The result of this montage comes across as a meta-meditation on artistic expression and how the political is always and inevitably personal, assuming the form of an associative distillation of the structural dimensions of daily life that inevitably resonate in the trends of pop culture. Let’s listen together to “girltalk”!

⋆｡°✩ Gaia Del Santo, “girltalk,” 10m33s ✩°｡⋆

Many thanks to Gaia Del Santo for the piece “girltalk,” which we just listened to together. Our journey today concludes with the piece “As de coeur,” which means “ace of hearts,” produced by artist and performer Marlène Charpentié: a Queen of Hearts. The piece comes together as a sequence of chimeras and visions of love, inspired by the universe of science fiction and symbolism. In the dystopian future envisioned by the artist, stories of polyamour intertwine and mix with baroque, absurd, or poetic impressions, tinged with unexpected colors. The resulting atmosphere gives the narrative an uncanny, enstranging consistency, in which one runs the risk of getting wrapped up. Listen to “As de coeur” by closing your eyes and like so, with your eyes closed, let yourself be guided through the inner and outer landscapes that the artist sketches to give substance to amorous feelings that, with any luck, will make you and your lovers throb. Enjoy your listening!

⋆｡°✩ Marlène Charpentié, “As de coeur,” 10m31s ✩°｡⋆

And that was Marlène Charpentié’s “As de coeur,” the last sound piece of the sound exhibition “Come è bello far l’amore da Trieste in giù #3.” Many thanks to all the artists who participated in the making of this new episode of CANALE MILVA. 

Many thanks also to Laurent Schmid & LapTop Radio for their hospitality and friendship, and to the Magica Opalini Association for supporting our sound project. We would also like to thank Pro Helvetia, Pro Litteris, Oertli Stiftung, and Canton Ticino – Swissloss Fund, who support us in the production of the annual programmation. And now all that remains is to give you an appointment to the next episode, leaving you to the notes of “Come ti vorrei” by the Ligonchio Eagle – and if you don’t know who that is, it means that you don’t listen to CANALE MILVA enough, so, soon, remedy it! We dedicate this song to our most dedicated listener, Isabella. Isa, this one is for you!

Opening song: ⋆｡°✩ Iva Zanicchi, “Come ti vorrei,” 1965 ✩°｡⋆