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by Miriam Di Francesco
When in March 2020 Manuel Orazi - a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the University of Ferrara and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio - recalls the figure of Yona Friedman, who had passed away a few weeks earlier, he wonders about Friedman "whether his essence does not resemble that of plants more than a man, that is, not a univocal entity, but a community of living entities."1 Immediately thereafter, Orazi conducts a reconnaissance of a considerable number of identities under the same person and, through a list, summarizes the "shape-shifting" character of student, fighter, refugee, Kibbutznik, architect, professor, Unesco official, essayist, artist, physicist, and presenter.
A few years after the passing of the creator of No Man's Land, Friedman to be exact, a review was born in 2023 that remembers him in his eclectic essence, of inspiration to those principles of participation and sharing of space, putting to use the network of relationships triggered by the experience of place.
Cantiere Aperto, the art, music and poetry festival promoted by the No Man's Land Foundation, with the curation of Zerynthia OdV Association and the collaboration of Aware - Resistant Beauty, traces that complex and complicated system which was the nature of its spiritual father and his intentions.
Already from its title, Cantiere Aperto, it wants to make itself the animator of a project in continuous transformation, never equal to itself, and strong in what it is able to arouse, stimulate and set in motion without the fixity of a single point of view or privileged field of action. It is as Open as its free free admission, in accordance with the archetype of democratization of imagination and art.
In the wake of such a vision, Michelangelo Lupone 's latest installation with Licia Galizia, Al vento, opened last Sept. 14 in the noceto forest, fits in. For the second edition of the festival, the artists were guided by the primordial element of sounds, movements and its sudden changes.
"It is fascinating," Lupone says, "to be in the woods of No Man's Land in the early afternoon breeze and listen to those subtle, long, polyphonic sounds, almost voices produced by the work that begins to discreetly dialogue with other sound installations on the site, an interweaving that can work, I think at some moments a concert will be produced."2 The installation stems from a deep experience of the site and the other installations there, from the intangible power of sounds and the search for the forms and volumes of sculpture. Michelangelo Lupone, composer and Artistic Director of the CRM Music Research Center in Rome, has been interweaving musical language with scientific thought with a multidisciplinary approach for years, making use of Licia Galizia's sculptural contribution for about two decades. The idea for the installation came from looking at the typical supports that are usually used for proper plant growth and from the intuition that the two stems could have a tactile and musical function. Whenever a person approaches the installation and makes contact with it with a slow caress, special sensors are activated that can create melodies. It is also true that wind, rain and other possible environmental changes can also affect the melody by establishing a synergy between humans and nature.
After the opening of Al vento, they reviewed the voices of poets and musicians starting with Filippo Balestra, a Genoese poet, writer and performer; musician Gaia Mobilij, a multifaceted singer and composer; the Linbos (Filippo Rabottini and Elia Notarandrea) in a live performance with DJ set, between Dance, House and improvisation; Jonida Prifti with a research that ranges from sound poetry and music to visual arts; Gipsy Rufina and her spirit as an itinerant musician; Ana Spasic with a poetry performance entitled Bonjour Stronzesse!, a tribute to Abruzzo intellectual Ennio Flaiano; and finally, Gennaro Spinelli, among the best-known Roma violinists, accompanied by harp and accordion.
Cantiere Aperto was enriched by the guest of honor, Bruna Esposito, who provided some hints of her upcoming installation with the word "opalescence" (what she may have meant, we will be forced to find out later). There was also room to share with the audience an important action aimed at the Foundation's future initiatives with the presence, in addition to Mario Pieroni (NML Foundation President) and Dora Stiefelmeier (RAM radioartemobile President) of Nicola Mattoscio, President of the Pescarabruzzo Foundation, and the Mayor of Loreto Aprutino, Renato Mariotti, who mentioned how the Pescarabruzzo Foundation made a variant to its bylaws this year to include the No Man's Land Foundation in the same way as the Civic Museums of Loreto Aprutino with the goal of supporting upcoming activities at No Man's Land.
The last thought of the capillary network of relationships between art, music, poetry, the public, and nature-translated also in ties with institutions-is for Marianne Friedman, Yona's daughter and Honorary President of the Foundation, who passed away in recent weeks.
To Marianne goes the dedication for the 2024 edition of Open Yard.
1 M. Orazi, June 5, 1923 - February 20, 2020 / How many Yona Friedman?, "Doppiozero," March 3, 2020 - https://www.doppiozero.com/quanti-yona-friedman, accessed September 18, 2024.
2 J. Ferrara, "A work with subtle and polyphonic sounds." The master recounts the genesis of the sculpture: "The sign brings spirituality,""Il Centro," 9/16/2024, p. 27.
