Venice
Art Biennale 2013: National Pavilions
Around Town – Mexico. The old church of San
Lorenzo, venue of the Mexican Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition
- La Biennale di Venezia, is a building that still speaks of its past
greatness. It is important that the project to be developed there actively
relates to a place of intrinsic aesthetic appeal. Consequently, the curatorial
proposal consists in creating a sonorous dialogue with the space. Cordiox, by
Ariel Guzik, is a complex machine that describes its environment through sound,
spreading a tonal, subtle and expansive crystalline cadence, thus creating a
unique listening experience.
Old
church of San Lorenzo – Mexican Pavilion. With this four meters high machine,
the artist has achieved an important synthesis of elements and functional
simplicity. His design is backed by decades of research and study; hence it is
not a mere representation, but the result of a perfection achieved in the
laboratory, with the backing of thorough experimentation. The machine's core is
made of a very fine quartz cylinder, unique in the world (45 cm in diameter and
180 cm high) manufactured especially for this piece by an expert German
company. It has long and tense chords, very much like a musical instrument. All
sorts of vibrations, empathic and environmental energies are susceptible to be
captured by its subtle mechanism, which transforms invisible entropy into
harmonious order. Furthermore, because of its sound-descriptive nature, without
speakers or amplifiers, Cordiox has the capability to envelop the complete
inner area of San Lorenzo with sound. Therefore the audience will sonorously
experience a site that cannot be traversed physically due to the church's
deterioration.
Old
church of San Lorenzo – Mexican
Pavilion. This antique church has a
surprising musical background. Among other important facts, it is said that,
due to its excellent acoustics, Antonio Vivaldi liked to rehearse for his
concerts there. In 1984, for the 41st edition of the Venice Biennale, this site
hosted a great public event: the opera Prometeo, by Luigi Nono, one of the most
important avant-garde composers of the twentieth century. This concert was his
final realization of what he conceived as the theater of consciousness:
"An invisible theater where the sound production and its projection in
space are fundamental for the creation of dramaturgy". For this concert,
the famous architect Renzo Piano produced a complex intervention that was later
taken apart in San Lorenzo and reinstalled wherever the opera Prometeo was
later presented.
Old
church of San Lorenzo – Mexican Pavilion. Cordiox, by Ariel Guzik.
Old
church of San Lorenzo.