una mostra personale di Roberto Paci Dalò
Mesostic di John Cage per Roberto Paci Dalò:
in two worlDs roberto
the one of nAture and the other
the musicaL
One
At the Galleria Marcolini, Roberto Paci Dalò – visual artist, musician and film director – presents his first comprehensive exhibit in Romagna. The artist displays an array of drawings, sounds and sculptures to create a “total” work of art, blending his works with the space hosting the show. Lights, projections and sounds link different areas of the gallery via site-specific interventions, molding the space into a single immersive environment.
The exhibition displays itself like an electric field – a place activated by history and people –, or a radio station – a device producing vibrations, flashes, sparks and shadows, and creating gaps between the internal and the external environment.
Kinoglaz (kino-eye) cites explicitly Dziga Vertov’s revolutionary cinema vérité: “The Kinoglaz [represents]… what the eye cannot see… the microscope and the telescope of time… the negative of time… the possibility to see without boundaries or distances… life caught unaware” (1924).
Roberto Paci Dalò – who has been active for years on the international stage – realizes his works starting from sounds and drawings, expanding them into sculptures, music, films and performances, giving life to projects which have the power to link the independent contemporary art scene with institutions and pop culture influences – Giardini Pensili, the interdisciplinary artistic group led by Paci Dalò, was born specifically to this purpose.
Art, science and nature are key words in the works of the artist, who has been a pioneer in the artistic use of the Internet and in the integration of analogic and digital technologies. Among some of his field-works there are radio, telematic networks, psycho-acoustics, robotics, man-machine interactions, real-time processing of images and sounds, soundscapes (audio landscapes and acoustic portraits of the city), cartography, as well as a study on the persistency of the classic tradition in contemporary cultures.
Paci Dalò often defines his work as a “drama of the media” or a “theatre of listening”. His projects frequently deal with more than one field of intervention, exploring the concept of how materials can be perceived in different ways – which explains why his visual and audio performances often become radio tracks, sound/video interactive installations, as well as online projects.
Site-specific practices are among the most important features of Paci Dalò’s research: his works exceed traditional spaces devoted to art (such as galleries, museums, or theatres), aiming to inhabit and transform different forms of environment, as well as the people living there (including ghosts haunting ghost towns). To Paci Dalò, relationships with people are important to create bonds which, even though sprouting from art, can also transcend art, activating collaborations on many levels.
Paci Dalò’s geographical and cultural references include Armenia, Georgia (and generally Transcaucasia), Mitteleuropa, North America’s deserts and Jerusalem. Systematic trips to religious places (especially churches in Armenia, orthodox and Christian sanctuaries, synagogues and mosques) are an integral part of his practice, and a special bond to Jewish culture plays as a permanent counterpoint to his research.