Massimo Bartolini

“Experience is due to a giving and receiving. Its medium is listening.”

—Byung-Chul Han, Vita contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, trans. D. Steuer, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024, p. 23

Due Qui / To Hear is an intentionally unfaithful translation, a conscious mistake. Playing on the homophones “two here” (in Italian, due qui) and “to hear,” it points to the relational nature of sound. We come together to listen to ourselves and to the Other: be it a human being, a natural form, or a machine. And considering that, in Bartolini’s view, art is a path to knowledge, “lending an ear” might serve as a tool for self-improvement.

Playing on the homophones “two here” (in Italian, due qui) and “to hear,” the title of this project suggests how hearing—or even better, listening—is an action directed towards others. For that matter, meeting and listening, relation and sound, go hand in hand here, as they have throughout the three decades of Massimo Bartolini’s practice. “We hear in order to listen,” as Pauline Oliveros once wrote. In Due Qui / To Hear, the acoustic paradigm should be seen as a physical experience, but also as a metaphor, an invitation to pay attention, to listen to the Other, be it a human being, a mechanical element, a natural form.

Through sculptures, installations, sound works, and performances, with a range that is characteristic of the artist’s practice, it aims to create a context of experience. Choosing among more than one entrance and possible route, visitors move through three spaces built around different acoustic experiences and meeting points. This path is marked out by an alternation of fullness and emptiness, movement and rest, with installations that respond to the physical characteristics of each space without becoming any form of display.

Due Qui / To Hear is also the most ambitious result so far of a collaborative approach that Bartolini frequently employs, involving many different figures. The skills and languages of music (Caterina Barbieri, Gavin Bryars, Kali Malone), literature (Nicoletta Costa, Tiziano Scarpa), and technical fields (engineers, organ experts, artisans) have contributed to defining the artistic and curatorial project in all its complexity, as if listening to a multitude… for a multitude of listeners.

Bartolini is one of the best-known Italian artists on the international scene. He was born in 1962 in Cecina, where he lives and works; after studying architectural drafting in Livorno, he graduated from the Accademia in Florence in 1989. He teaches Visual Arts at NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Since 1993, he has been showing his work in many public and private spaces in Italy and abroad.

His solo exhibitions include: Hagoromo, Centro Pecci per l’Arte Contemporanea (Prato, 2022); On Identikit, CSAC – Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione dell’Università di Parma (2020); Manifesta 12 (parallel event) Caudu e Fridu, Palazzo Oneto (Palermo, 2018); Four Organs, Fondazione Merz (Turin, 2017); Studio Matters+1, Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh, 2013) and S.M.A.K. (Ghent, 2013); Serce na Dloni, Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu (Toruń, 2013); HUM, AuditoriumArte (Rome, 2012) and MARCO - Museo de arte contemporáneo (Vigo, 2012); Museu Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Porto, 2007); Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2007); GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Turin, 2005); Museum Abteiberg (Mönchengladbach, 2002); PS1 (New York, 2001); Henry Moore Foundation (Leeds, 1996); Paesaggi, Galleria Massimo De Carlo (Milan, 2016); Afterheart, Frith Street Gallery (London, 2012); Three Quarter-Tone Pieces, Magazzino (Rome, 2010).

Among his group shows, one should note: Biennale di Venezia (1999, 2001 parallel event, 2009, 2013); Biennal de València (2001); Stanze e Segreti, Rotonda della Besana (Milan, 2000); Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt, 2002); Bienal de São Paulo (2004); Bienal de Pontevedra (2004); Ecstasy: In and About Altered States, MOCA Los Angeles (2005); Shanghai Biennale (2006 and 2012); Yokohama Triennale (2011); Documenta (13) (Kassel, 2012); Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (Tokamachi, 2012); Track (Ghent, 2012); One on One, Kunstwerke (Berlin, 2012); The City, My Studio / The City, My Life, Kathmandu Triennale (2017); Habit Co-Habit, Pune Biennale (2017); Starting from the Desert: Ecologies on the Edge, Yinchuan Biennale (2018); Escape Routes, Bangkok Art Biennale (2020); Setouchi Triennale (2022).

Commissioners: Angelo Piero Cappello, Direttore Generale Creatività Contemporanea, Ministero della Cultura

Curator: Luca Cerizza