Massimo Bartolini's Italian Pavilion at Venice Biennale Blends Architecture and Music

Massimo Bartolini's installation for the Italian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, titled "Due qui/To hear," merges architecture and music. Curated by Luca Cerizza and commissioned by Angelo Piero Cappello, the work features collaborations with musicians Caterina Barbieri, Gavin Bryars, and Kali Malone. The pavilion is structured around scaffolding that functions as an organ, emitting sound throughout the space. A central basin called "Conveyance" generates waves, where music resolves into an antiphon. The installation also includes a garden where sound emanates from trees, with performers standing still like trees. The title plays on the homophony between "two here" and "to hear" in English, and the Italian "due" meaning both "two" and "debt." The work references Paul Valéry's concept of "buildings that sing," Emily Dickinson's poetry, and Marguerite Yourcenar's description of trees. Bartolini's earlier works, such as "Flautino" (2004), "Aiuole" (1995), "Ballad" (2002), and the video "Il frutto" (1990), inform this installation. A figure of the Pensive Bodhisattva greets visitors, drawing a parallel to Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener. The pavilion is part of the Biennale's main exhibition "Stranieri Ovunque" (Foreigners Everywhere) curated by Adriano Pedrosa.