“Panoptico”, the sound art installation by Greta Lusoli at Castello di Duino

Opening: March, Saturday 25th at 11.00 a.m., at Castello di Duino's Bunker (via Duino 32, 34011, Duino Aurisina – Italy) - The participation to the opening is by reservation only (via mail at info@iodeposito.org or via the B#Side War App)

Opening hours: from 25th March 2017 to 2nd April 2017; from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. (closed on Tuesdays). Free entry.


Infoline: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org


In collaboration with the Gruppo Ermada Flavio Vidonis and the Castle of Duino, IoDeposito Ngo presents on Saturday 25th March at 11.00 a.m. the sound art installation PANOPTICO by Greta Lusoli, at the Castello di Duino's Bunker. The event is organized thanks to the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the patronage of UNESCO and it will be available until the 2nd April 2017: from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed on Tuesdays). This new appointment belongs to the third edition of the diffuse artistic and cultural Festival B#SIDE WAR, which is promoted by IoDeposito through numerous Italian and international events such as exhibitions, conferences and research project (www.bsidewar.org).

One hundred years ago, Europe looked like a big open-air prison: almost fifteen million people used to be trapped inside inhuman war jails and even more civilians were trapped between refugee camps and their own houses, living a life of destruction and deprivation. The sound art installation PAN-ὀπτικός by Greta Lusoli relates to that terrible war scenario trying to evoke and reconstruct in the mind of the listener the archetype prison designed by the philosopher and jurist J. Bentham at the end of XVIII century. Born with the intent to make the jails more efficient, less expensive and easier to monitor, the  Bentham's structure provided only one warden who, standing in the centre of the building, was able to guard at the same time all of the prisoners in their cells developed in a circle around the central space. In this way the prison cells became transparent: the privacy of the prisoners and the preservation of their intimacy (so, their inner identity) completely disappeared, stoking a dangerous process of objectualization and dehumanization of the prisoner.

PAN-ὀπτικός works through a stratification of its deepest meanings: there are at least three intrinsic factors related to this immaterial but complex intervention of public art. The first analysis is a sensorial one: to evoke the cruel architecture of Panopticon, Greta Lusoli project into the proxemic space of the listener a vibrant, deep, screeching and unpleasant sound that resonate inside the chest and memory of the listener with universal and archetypical echoes of a primordial energy, reminding to ancestral alert signals.  This sound create an emotional correspondence, as a summa of all the alert signals coming from the animal world, including the most primitive ones whose have been extinguished. The second level of interpretation tunes the experience of this 18th-century architecture with the tragedy of contemporary conflicts. The choice of an architecture as a symbol of an unseen reality (but too much common in our contemporaneity) hit the headlines from a mathematics and conceptual proportion trough that the sound resonate in the space: the minutes within a year are divided with the numbers of prisoners that every year, today, are victims of conflicts. In fact, the sound reverberates every 5 minutes and 53 seconds, underlining the impressive quantity of war prisoners that nowadays still loose their freedom in conflicts. Finally, a third metaphorical matrix concern to the dissociation of polarities see-be seen. The vastness of the conflicts that is gripping the entire world is not read today by our eyes but, thanks to the sound that powerfully touch the deepest strings of our soul, it can be clearly perceived in our minds.

An important role is played by the location. The Castel of Duino, completely destroyed due to its proximity to the front during the First World War, was under bombardments of the allies on Monfalcone during the Second World War. Villagers used to seek refuge inside the big Bunker, venturing into the deep cave and waiting in the dark that the worst was over. The sound art intervention, installed in the last room of the basement, take the listener at the same time in one space and in many others, comparing the “now and here” of the listener physical presence, with the “then and there” of the victims and prisoners of the conflict. A vibrant and harsh sound will vibrate inside the bunker of the castle, reflecting an old fear that can be dissolved only  by the light expectancy coming through a window in front of the sea.

Contacts:
Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org
Direction: info@iodeposito.org
Press&Communication: daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org