We live enveloped by a constant noise. In cities we have the sound of traffic and the neighbor’s dogs. On the countryside, the current of the river and the rustling of the wind. This eternal buzz is the background of our existence. We do not hear it, for us it is nothing. But this nothing is all but empty. If every sound with meaning – music, spoken word – is sound issued in an organized manner, then the noise of the world means the possibility for all predicates. Therein lies the universal, the genetic material of everything.
The work of Bruno Palazzo is circular and impersonal. Circular since it does not suggest temporal linearity, succession or direction. Impersonal because, like in the installation Fotos Sobre Nada/Som Sobre Nada, the artist has created nothing, he merely rearranged found objects. There is no predefined intention. There exists no narrative, a beginning, middle and end, only a flow that does not require a critical response. And in this exercise, meanings of everyday life are subtracted to launch us into the nothingness.
In Drone para Rádio Cultura FM, the environment created by the artist starting from the appropriation of radio transmission breaches our traditional frontal relationship with artworks. This aspect, present in many of his works, challenges the hegemony of the visual and shifts our attention away from one fixed point to the surrounding context. As such, the exhibited works are immersive, and only comes to be before the viewer. This approach proposes an equivalence between languages and aspires a reciprocity between artwork and individual, raising a vague and instinctive relationship among them.
By assembling electronic devices, sound processors, found objects and sound captured in the air, the artist promotes a fusion between aural and physical phenomena, investigating the possibility of a unified aesthetic. The combination of the constituent traits of the three elements – sound, physical and subjective – form a coherent whole that pushes us into our maze of meanings. This sensory, bodily, experience destabilizes our cartesian perception and allows us a more intimate contact with our own subjectivity.
Fernando Ticoulat, curator.
Installation view
Drone para Rádio Cultura FM, 2014 / Radio devices, effect processors, speakers and acoustic foam / Dimensions variable
Drone para Rádio Cultura FM, 2014 / Radio devices, effect processors, speakers and acoustic foam / Dimensions variable
Mesa Técnica, 2014 / Signal generators, oscilloscopes, drawings and speakers / Dimensions variable
Mesa Técnica, 2014 (detail) / Signal generators, oscilloscopes, drawings and speakers / Dimensions variable
Mesa Técnica, 2014 (detail) / Signal generators, oscilloscopes, drawings and speakers / Dimensions variable
Installation view
Melodias Mortais, 2014 / Books, acrylic supports and sound design / Dimensions variable
Melodias Mortais, 2014 (detail) / Books, acrylic supports and sound design / Dimensions variable
Fotos Sobre Nada/Som Sobre Nada, 2014 / Photographic papers, plastic cases and sound piece for Tape Deck / Dimensions variable
Fotos Sobre Nada/Som Sobre Nada, 2014 / Photographic papers, plastic cases and sound piece for Tape Deck / Dimensions variable
Installation view
Coletor de Presença, 2014 / Microphones for capturing sound in the external area, mixer audio channels and speakers / Dimensions variable
Máquina, 2008 / Video / 7’31”
Máquina, 2008 / Video / 7’31”
Máquina, 2008 / Video / 7’31”
Máquina, 2008 / Video / 7’31”