The Acoustic Portrait were presented for the first time at Radio 3- RAI.
They toke part at ART ATHINA in 1998 and during the John Cage Reading in New York, in the 1999 in Rome at the National Gallery of Modern Art with Achille bonito Oliva as curator.
In March 2005 Cindy Van Acker created a ballet on this, during the Archipel festival in Geneve.
Andrea Liberovici
Starting from a thought by J. Cage on the new modalities and methods of composing, I start thinking that composing music in this ending century holds the principal characteristics of painting and photography of this century. We fix on analogical, digital burlaps (losing therefore one prerogative that is the possibility of other executions in the future by the interpreter), in order to gain the fixity from the painting, and the fixity of a movement from the photography. In order to maintain this simile, the sound becomes colour, natural or synthetic (in accordance with the source) and the instruments of electronic music are powerful paintbrushes. The sound, which is written for the sound, becomes the protagonist with a sound, and crosses the reasons of a sound. Saying that, I have begun to work on some paintings with sophisticated and much rare software, in my study of recording. That is, I use the voice (therefore the image, therefore the fundamental colour) for example, Marinetti's voice, and I construct exactly the portrait through the sonorous phantom, the stamp and the rhythm of its declaim. This way has suggested to me the idea of a gallery of portraits, to choose among poets, oratories, actors, and politicians; for analogy or contrast with the argument of the transmission. Some of them released me purposely their voice, others have been founded out with the aid of my personal bookcase.
Acoustic Portrait will be broadcasted (by RAI III) beginning from Saturday morning, 1 November 97, for fourteen days, in the course of a new cycle of the program "Notes of flight", which is dedicated to the virtues. It is my intention to prepare a true and own exhibition in a gallery of modern art (the first successful preparation has been in Athens for the cycle "Art Athina '98"), where have being exposed these Acoustic Portrait. Some picks up (C.D. players or Dat with headphones for to everyone), which contain the recording of the portrait, will be installed to the walls. A nameplate with the author's name will be applied to every pick up. At the moment the realized figures are fifteen, some living others not. Thery are Sanguineti, Albertazzi, Ghezzi, and then Artaud, Marinetti, Pound and so on, the intention is to arrive to an exhibition with a maximum of 21 portraits like the XXI century that is coming to the end.
Acoustic Portrait has already been exposed in "Art Athina" Atene-1998; "J. Cage reading" New York-1998; "National Gallery of Modern Art" cured from Achille Bonito Olive - Rome, 1999.
The portrayed personages are:
E. Sanguineti
G. Albertazzi
A. Artaud
Marinetti
E. Pound
U. Saba
L. Nono
P. Poli
L. Romano
V. Magrelli
J. Starobinski
Garboli
E. Varèse - F. Zappa
G. Marini
J. Cage