Carlos Garaicoa's Memotopography at Lerici Music Festival

The eighth edition of the Lerici Music Festival, held from July 26 to August 11, 2024, features for the first time a contemporary art exhibition, Memotopography, by Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa (born 1967 in Havana). Curated by Carlo Orsini in collaboration with Galleria Continua, the exhibition explores memory through architecture, urban space, and music. It is housed in the 18th-century Villa Marigola in Lerici, part of the 'Gulf of Poets.' The festival, directed by Gianluca Marcianò, also takes place at Fortezza Firmafede in Sarzana, Opificio Vaccari in Santo Stefano di Magra, and Chiesa di San Pietro in Portovenere. The exhibition includes five works: The Roots of the World (2016), a table pierced by knives reflecting a city skyline; Photo-topography (2012), which juxtaposes urban ruin with the contemporary art system using 3D polystyrene reproductions of city photographs; and the video projection Partitura (2024), featuring forty musical recordings by street artists to celebrate unity through diversity. On the opening day, July 26, 2024, at 6:30 PM, Garaicoa's video Abismo will be screened, inspired by Adolf Hitler's obsession with classical music and reflecting on free thought. Its soundtrack is the third movement of Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor Pour La Fin du Temps (1941), performed live by clarinetist Mahé Marty. The festival marks a new interdisciplinary direction, aiming to become an incubator of art and music.