English

The art installation, which premiered in Frankfurt D as part of the Luminale 2010 festival, and in Turin on the occasion of XIII-XIV-XV editions of Luci d’Artista, was on view in April 2011 in a new indoor version placed in the post-industrial spaces next to the new Gagliardi Art System Gallery premises. In June 2011 the work opened the Jerusalem Festival of Light in an evocative display in the Zedekiah’s cave. In November 2012 was in Glow, Eindhoven NL, in September 2013 in Bella Skyway Festival, Torun PL, Moscow International Festival “Circle of Light”, Moscou RUS, 2014; CidneOn Festival Internazionale delle Luci a Brescia IT, 2017; Staro Riga, 2017 LV.

Forty identical masks coming from Bwindi National Park, at the innermost heart of black Africa, are placed like small monoliths, resembling ancient terracotta finds at an archaeological site. The rite comes alive when the artificial light alters the hues of the masks, creating a still dance supported by the bi-vocal sounds of the Tuva people of Central Asia. This dance in turn paints a picture with shadows. A new rituality takes shape through universal anthropological archetypes: the African mask, which has always been a mediator between humans and the supernatural, the harmonic chants of the Tuva shamanic tradition, and light. The most interesting aspect of this timeless ritual lies precisely in the link between light and sound, which can often be found in ancient cultures where the sense of religious performance is created by the sound becoming substance and attracting divine light, so as to establish a contact between the divine and humans.

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