Continuing last year’s inaugural Sound art exhibition, in 2019 Artissima has launched Artissima Telephone, the second off-site project created for the spaces of OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni as a result of the collaboration between the two institutions.
Conceived by Ilaria Bonacossa and curated by Vittoria Martini, the exhibition presented – from 31 October to 3 November – an overview of the telephone as a means of artistic expression, presenting works selected from the proposals of the galleries taking part in the fair.
Artissima Telephone is a response to the obsessive relationship we all have with our devices, objects that are increasingly connected and function as essential go-betweens of contemporary social relations. In the space of the Duomo at the OGR, a heterogeneous selection of works that use the telephone as an objectual or conceptual medium allowed viewers to have the now paradoxical experience of having to go to a precise place and to pick up a receiver to listen to a specific work, even though they all had constantly activated smartphones in their pockets.
Artissima Telephone encouraged reflection on the point of passage between landlines and mobile phones, exploring the way social practices have changed since the introduction of factors of mobility (space) and simultaneity (time). The use of the smartphone, considered something more than a simple vocal device, has led to the loss of a designated place for phone calls, making everyone’s life public somehow. Awareness of total receptivity and mobility transforms mobile phones into social technologies capable of uniting digital spaces and confirming our presence, simply by remaining connected.
In relation to the theme of Artissima 2019, desire-censorship, Artissima Telephone prompted further reflection on the development of existing technologies, and how they have reformulated the notions of public and private, physical and digital space, intimacy and sharing. This hybrid mobility of private communication, being in the digital realm, is subject to constant surveillance, becoming a tool to monitor location, preferences and content.
Artissima Telephone proposed works that investigate these contemporary themes, generating forms of “active resistance” suggesting a deeper “listening”. Delving into the aural character of contemporary artistic research, the show activated an alternative audio experience that enhanced and amplified visual works.
aaajiao, House Of Egorn, Berlin; Apparatus 22, Gallleriapiù, Bologna; Matthew Attard, Michela Rizzo, Venezia; Axel M.; Xiaoyi Chen, Matèria, Roma; Larisa Crunțeanu, Anca Poterasu, Bucharest; Roberto Fassone, Fanta-Mln, Milano; Shadi Habib Allah, Rodeo, London, Piraeus; Nona Inescu, SpazioA, Pistoia; Antal Lakner, Glassyard, Budapest; Glenda León, Senda, Barcelona; Camille Llobet, Florence Loewy, Paris; Anna Maria Maiolino, Raffaella Cortese, Milano; Josep Maynou, Bombon, Barcelona; Marzia Migliora, Lia Rumma, Milano, Napoli – Special Project Telefono Rosa, Torino; Francesco Pedraglio, Norma Mangione, Torino; Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giorgio Persano, Torino; Selma Selman, Novembar, Belgrade; Michele Spanghero, Alberta Pane, Paris, Venezia + Mazzoli, Berlin, Modena, Dusseldorf; Myles Starr, Vin Vin, Vienna; Alberto Tadiello, Vicenza; Emilio Vavarella, Gallleriapiù, Bologna; Cesare Viel, Pinksummer, Genova.
