Il corpo della voce. Carmelo Bene, Cathy Berberian, Demetrio Stratos

09.04__30.06.2019

curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi and Francesca Rachele Oppedisano
with the scientific contributions of Franco Fussi, Graziano G. Tisato

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Il corpo della voce. Carmelo Bene, Cathy Berberian, Demetrio Stratos 9 April__30 June 2019
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The exhibition will be devoted to the Voice in terms of its potential as pure sound. It sets out to provide an overview of the artistic events which, treading in the footsteps the 20th century avant–garde movements in art, broke the indissoluble bond between the meaning of a word and its sound dimension by showcasing a selection of works by three outstanding figures from the second half of the century: Cathy Berberian (1925–83), an American mezzo soprano singer of Armenian origin; actor and director Carmelo Bene (1937–2002); and Demetrio Stratos (1945–79), a singer and musician of Greek origin.

Demetrio Stratos esegue i Mesostics di John Cage allo Spazio Fiorucci di via Torino, Milano, 1977  | Foto Roberto Masotti. Lelli e Masotti Archivio. Courtesy 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery © Roberto Masotti
Cathy Berberian posa con il vestito di scena di Stripsody, circa 1966  | Collezione Cathy Berberian, Fondazione Paul Sacher, Basilea

The innovative research and experimentation pursued by these three great artists will accompany the visitor on an original and totally unprecedented journey of exploration to discover the voice, this crucial aspect of man's potential. The exhibition will be showcasing over 120 photographs, videos, archive material, original musical scores, correspondence and documents on public display for the very first time, together with interactive exhibits, listening areas and the electronic instrumentation used by the artists themselves when exploring the boundaries of their own vocal ranges. 
This substantial collection of documents and testimonials was put together by the exhibition's curators Francesca Rachele Oppedisano and Anna Cestelli, whose meticulous research and consultation of numerous archives led them to discover a broad range of astonishing and previously unpublished material.

Immagine singola

The exhibition is enriched by two scientific sections.
The first is an introductory section curated by Franco Fussi, an ear nose and throat surgeon and specialist in phoniatrics, who offers visitors a scrupulously scientific analysis of the interior of the resonating cavity where the voice is configured in physical terms. The second, curated by Graziano Tisato, a researcher with the Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione (ISTC) – CNR in Padua, is in the Stratos section and comprises three interactive stations expressly designed for the exhibition, allowing visitors to deepen their understanding of the vocal effects that Stratos produced.