For the first time since its creation, the monumental artwork by Yuval Avital that brings together more than 200 artists from around the world will be presented at ESPRONCEDA Institute of Art & Culture on the occasion of LOOP BARCELONA: CITY SCREEN 2021, one of the most important festivals of video art in Europe held in Barcelona every year.
The participatory project HUMAN SIGNS, a global voice and gesture artwork, is conceived by multimedia artist and composer Yuval Avital in collaboration with Stefania Ballone, dancer and choreographer of Teatro alla Scala.
An art anomaly, not produced or commissioned by any entity, but desired by the artists themselves. Born during the COVID-19 seclusion, interpreting the viral aesthetic of this unique historical moment, HUMAN SIGNS has gathered till now over 200 performers from 50 countries, each proposing a deep individual art-testimony which converges into a powerful expressive multimedia fresco. Yuval’s 12 minutes vocal art testimony, auto-filmed during reclusion, expresses his most intimate state and becomes a fundamental layer to which all artists relate to as a timeline, musicality and intensity guide (similar to the Renaissance concept of Cantus Firmus), allowing by this method potential infinite interconnections between all participants, creating choirs, Ensembles, Constellations and intimate dialogues. Bringing a deep sense of togetherness, HUMAN SIGNS aims to overcome physical distance and isolation; therefore, it invites us to explore differently the spaces, languages, and forms of interconnection, as part of a collective reflection on a unique historical time. HUMAN SIGNS was presented online as a multimedia artwork through the Living Digital Archive and offline through LIVE GRID performances in five different cities around the world (New York, San Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Milan, Turin). The exhibition leads the visitors into the HUMAN SIGNS universe through three chapters. The first element will be an immersive polyptych of seven parallel projections, in which a constant flow of the artists’ auto-filmed performances creates an ideally infinite ensemble. The second element of the exhibition allows visitors to virtually meet the artists and listen directly to all the different emotions they experienced while participating in the performance, and to view the LIVE GRID performances that took place in the past months around the world. The third element is an experience room, in which each visitor is able to engage completely with the artwork as a performer using their voice and body in dialogue with Yuval Avital’s cantus firmus. The exhibition will also host a new LIVE GRID involving artists from Barcelona in dialogue with the surrounding videos.
Curated by Savina Tarsitano
Opening 13 November, 7.30 PM.
13–22 November 2021
Yuval Avital: Born in Jerusalem in 1977 and living in Milan, Yuval Avital is a multimedia artist, composer and guitarist who develops his works in a variety of spaces, including public places, industrial archaeological sites, theatres and museums, challenging the traditional crystallized categories that separate the arts. His exhibitions, performances, immersive installations, total works, large-scale sound “rituals” and concerts involve dancers, contemporary music ensembles, masters of ancient cultures and traditions, individuals or communities recruited in participatory works, multi-projection video, meditative tactile environments, advanced technological tools, archival materials, collaborations with scientific institutions, sound sculptures, objects, painting and printed works. Each of Avital’s artworks is a unique experiential, poetic and emotional microcosm with its own identity, fruit of a meticulous research carried out in a carefully coded language, confronting the recurring themes of archetype and structure; ancestral and current global-era human condition; nature and hybridity; ritual and science. Avital’s sound and visual artworks have been presented in museums, art foundations, venues and art events such as MANIFESTA Biennial, GAM-Torino, MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome, OSTRALE Dresden Biennial, La Fabbrica del Cioccolato Foundation in Switzerland, Saint Antoine Church Istanbul, Marino Marini Museum in Florence, and the National Science and Technology Museum “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan. In 2021, he held his first solo exhibition ETERE in Milan; in September, he participated in both Milan Design Week and Miart with the site-specific installation MIKVE’ (Holy Bath) at Bagni Misteriosi. He also participated in the exhibition Social Impact is an Art n.41 one + 1one = 3three, organised by the International School of Geneva in collaboration with Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto ONLUS, Kids Guernica Foundation, Anouk Foundation, Switzerland for UNHCR and the University of Geneva.
Stefania Ballone: She graduated at the Scuola di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala; from 2000 she has been part of the theatre’s corps de ballet, where she participates in all the season’s productions, also interpreting solo roles. While dancing at the Teatro alla Scala, she is constantly involved in choreographic projects for theatre across several different movement expressions. She participated in the Positano Prize in 2006 and at the Venice Biennale Dance Festival in 2007, as a dancer and assistant of choreographer Francesco Ventriglia. In 2011, she graduated in Modern Literatures at the Università degli Studi di Milano, also debuting with her first choreography Per una volta at Parma Royal Theatre. In 2014, she graduated with a Master in Sciences of Theatre and Performing Arts at the Università degli Studi di Milano, with a thesis on Ballet at the Teatro alla Scala in the Nineties. She curated the artistic show at L’Aia di San Giorgio, Vignacastrisi; Prima che si fa notte, pianoforte e danza per resistere al buio, 2020; the choreography La Valse for the Teatro alla Scala’s corps de ballet, 2017; the direction and choreography for the show treD: Design, Danza, Disability at Design Triennale, 2016; the choreography of the 30th edition of Milanotre Festival, 2016. She has participated as a dancer in Alter balletto, show Shortcut by Emanuela Tagliavia, 2020; Dresden Biennale, 2019; Nothing to sell, MACRO Museum, Rome, 2019; Foreign Bodies by Yuval Avital, Fondazione Fabbrica del Cioccolato, Switzerland, 2017. In 2019, she began an artistic collaboration with pianist Francesco Libetta. Among her prizes: Dance Prize, Siracusa; Perugia International Dance Contest; Volterra Dance Prize, 2011; Europa in danza Prize, 2016; Mads Price for Dance in Salerno, 2019; the Choreography Contest’s final in Sens with her pas de deux Thunders and Lightnings, 2018.
CORE EXHIBITION TEAM
Author: Yuval Avital
Curator: Savina Tarsitano
Production: Mark Galvez, Alessia Gervasone and Ovidiu Valeriu Bojour
Exhibition design: Maddalena d’Alfonso
Assistant exhibition design: Sebastian Rodriguez Mendieta
Main installation video editing: Yuval Avital
Additional video editing: Franco Covi
Assistant artistic director: Angelica Mezza
Press office: Elisa Muscatelli and Sara Monari
Communication: Renata Procópio
Graphics and communication: Kiana Telebpour
HUMAN SIGNS CREATIVE TEAM
Author and Artistic Director: Yuval Avital
Dance Curator and co-artistic director: Stefania Ballone
Coordinators: Angelica Mezza and Elisa Muscatelli
Production: Md’A
Communication: Yalp
Art Direction: LeftLoft
Video conforming, LIVE GRID editor and cameraman: Franco Covi
Social Media: Mariaelena Maieron
Research: Andrea Carraro and Silvia Cognizzoli
Opening 13 November 7.30 PM | 13–22 November 2021 | 4.00–7.30 PM
ESPRONCEDA Institute of Art & Culture, C. d’Espronceda, 326, Nave 4 y 5, 08026
[supsystic-gallery id=14 position=center]