Electroacoustic circus in the imaginary of Jean Tinguely

Curated by Milano Musica
in collaboration with
IRCAM – Centre Pompidou
Conservatorio G. Verdi of Milan

With:
Jérôme Comte, clarinet, soloist of the Ensemble Intercontemporain
Luca Bagnoli, sound engineering Ircam
Yann Brecy, electronics Ircam
Wind Orchestra of the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan
Sandro Satanassi, conductor

 

The Public Program dedicated to Jean Tinguely‘s exhibition presents Electroacoustic Circus in the Imaginary of Jean Tinguely, a concert within the exhibition spaces in Pirelli HangarBicocca, in direct dialogue with the artist’s works.

The event, which is part of the program of cultural events that celebrate the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth (1925-2025), is curated by Milano Musica with the collaboration of Ircam-Centre Pompidou and the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan. The concert, that will be held during the last days of the exhibition dedicated to Jean Tinguely, draws from the Swiss artist’s research on sound, which has been present as a central element, inseparable from the visual, in his works since the 1950s.

Fascinated by research on “musique concrète” considered the first form of electronic music, which used sounds taken from reality and mechanically generated, Tinguely came to define his works as “machines for mixing sounds.” In some sculptures such as Méta-Maxi (1986), featured in the exhibition, the artist inserts actual musical instruments along with other mechanisms that produce deliberately discordant sounds.

This tribute to Jean Tinguely takes its inspiration from one of his most famous works, the Fontaine Stravinsky, which the artist created in 1982-83 together with Niki de Saint Phalle. It is located in Paris, on the square of the same name, between the Centre Georges Pompidou and Saint-Merry church, and above IRCAM (the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), one of the world’s largest public research centers dedicated to both musical expression and scientific research. At the time, Jean Tinguely and Pierre Boulez, IRCAM’s founder and first director, had developed a close friendship.

The program begins with one of the first works Boulez conceived at IRCAM, Dialogue de l’ombre double (1985), which features a live clarinet and a recorded track.

The acoustic component found in many of Tinguely’s works is central to the second piece on the program, an “imaginary crossing” made by Yann Brecy and Luca Bagnoli with recorded sounds from the Cyclop, an enormous sculpture more than 22 meters high created by Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in the woods of Milly-la-Forêt in 1969, which includes sound mechanisms, a small theater and moving metal machinery and is the result of the collective work of several artists that lasted almost fifteen years.

The concert then continues with Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet written by Stravinsky when Tale of the Soldier came out in 1918 and concludes with Feu de joie, a piece for wind orchestra composed in 2023 by Mikel Urquiza (Bilbao, 1988) on commission from IRCAM on the occasion of the restoration of the Fontaine Stravinsky.

 

PROGRAM:

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)
Dialogue de l’ombre double (1985, 20′)
for solo clarinet and recorded clarinet

Cyclop (2024)
An immersive soundscape inspired by Jean Tinguely’s Cyclop (2024, 8′), proposed by IRCAM and imagined onsite by Yann Brecy and Luca Bagnoli, at Milly-la-Forêt, France.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Three pieces for clarinet solo (1918, 4′)

Mikel Urquiza (1988)
Feu de joie (2023, 10′)
for wind orchestra
Commissioned by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou with the support of AXA on the occasion of the restoration of the Fontaine Stravinsky in Paris
Italian premiere
Wind Orchestra of the Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano
Conductor Sandro Satanassi
Flutes: Matteo Vatovec (piccolo), Elisa Fleres, Lumeng Xu
Clarinets: Claudia del Vecchio, Luca Frizzele, Niccolò Atti, Chiara Pellerano, Riccardo Tedesco, Nicola Chiera (soprano), Andrea Fatighenti (contralto), Stefano Luciani (tenor), Marco Sala (baritone), Alice Molari (bass)
Horns: Stefano Avezzù, Riccardo Castelnuovo
Trumpets: Leonardo Galimberti, Giulia Bassini, Marco Maiello
Trombones: Elia Fanucci, Niccolò Re
Euphonium: Annalisa Madonia, Leonardo Dispenza
Tuba: Andrea Ferrari, Fabio Prina
Percussion: Matteo Savio, Sofia Dogati, Elio Cristoforo, Mirko Secomandi