IN SHORT⟶ A collaborative sound performance led by Alessandro Bosetti and blind and visually impaired people, creating a ‘Palace of Memory’. This unique space, both physical and mental, embodies memories through sound and acoustic compositions. Both performers and the audience will explore the emotive qualities that render a sound unforgettable.
I imagined a world without memory, without time; I toyed with the possibility of a language of impersonal verbs or indeclinable epithets. In these reflections the days went by, and with the days, years. Until one morning, something very much like joy occurred – the sky rained slow, strong rain.
– J.L. Borges, The Immortal, 1947
An inside-out journey using sound as a bridge between acoustic re-enactment and creation. Composer and sound artist Alessandro Bosetti constructs a hypothetical ‘Palace of Memory’, a tangible and imaginative space that holds sound memories tied to life stories. This work is created in collaboration with the blind and visually impaired community of A.S.P. Sant’Alessio Margherita di Savoia.
Commotion, melodies, and words. Events clinging to certain sounds, resurfacing from a rewritten, yet cherished and celebrated past. An inner place where specific memories are uncovered through meditation, exercise, and experimentation, requiring one to close their eyes. What does an unforgettable noise sound like?
Sonic writing emerges from a tapestry of sounds, aiming to reconstruct, transform, remodulate, and recompose them in the mind and heart. For both spectator and performer, it involves seeking out the emotions that make certain sounds memorable while others fade away, navigating the delicate space between oblivion and auditory hallucination. The title of this piece is inspired by Maurizio Bettini’s book. Roma, città della parola (Einaudi, 2022).
La memoria risiede nel lobo dell’orecchio is one of three performances developed as part of the European project Radio That Matters. This performance is made accessible through a collective participation process involving both artists and individuals with and without visual disabilities.
Alessandro Bosetti is a composer and sound artist whose work focuses on the musicality inherent in language and the voice as an independent object. He also produces pieces using radio as a medium and artwork focused on the art of listening. Bosetti’s music is included in the programs of numerous festivals including: Festival d’Automne in Paris, Eclat Festival in Stuttgart, Présences Electroniques festival of the GRM in Paris, Liquid Architecture Festival in Melbourne, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Musica Festival in Strasbourg and Ruido Festival in Buenos Aires. His music is the subject of numerous recorded publications on labels such as Xong, Kohlhaas, Errant Bodies Press, Holidays Records, Unsounds and Monotype, which in 2016 dedicated a retrospective box set to him (4 CDs). His book Thèses / Voix – a collection of texts between theory, poetry and score was published in 2021 by Les presses du réel. A vinyl version of FasFari – the most recent episode of his Plane/Talea series – as well as the Portraits des Voix CD have just been released by Xong and Kohlhaas Records.
an acoustic performance by Alessandro Bosetti
in cooperation with the community of blind and visually impaired people attending the A.S.P. Sant’Alessio Margherita di Savoia
with the voices and the words of Marco Guardati, Sonia Gioia, Giovanni Florio, Alessio Federici, Nikolaj Llevliev, Gianluigi degli Atti
thanks to Piersandra Di Matteo, Francesco Di Stefano, Matteo Angius, Marzia Bonacci
production AREA06 within the European project Radio That Matters
in collaboration with A.S.P. Sant’Alessio Margherita di Savoia
presented at Short Theatre 2024 within the project Eco:frequenze funded by European Union – Next Generation EU
with the support of Fondazione Alta Mane Italia and Insieme Siamo Arte 2024 by Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale and ATCL
ph. Maria Giovanna Sodero
