Riflessi

RIFLESSI

Gaggiandre di Sansovino, Venice, Italy

Dimensions:
Variable

Materials:
Light and Sound

Kristin Jones, Visual Artist
David Monacchi, Composer
Corrado Fantoni, Composer
Giovanni Mancuso, Composer
Walter Branchi, Composer

Daniel K. Brown, Rendering, Animation

Adam Alexander, Rendering

Johan Nortje, Animation

Thirty minutes before sunset, the nearby bells of the Church of San Francesco will call viewers to the magnificent, sixteenth century Sansovino boathouse at the entrance to the Italian Pavilion. As the sun sets, the spectators will surround the two enormous, parallel pools of water contained under the Gaggiandre’s high wooden roof and three Classical colonnades, linking interior with exterior, land with water, natural and built environments. The growing darkness will gradually reveal two white circles of light with brilliant prismatic halos projected onto the rippling surface of the basins, illuminating the water and amplifying the ever-shifting currents as rows of lights along the parallel colonnades bring the stone archways to life.

As twilight gives way to night, quiet will descend. From the silence, the delicate, atmospheric music of Walter Branchi will emerge – one flute answering another across the Gaggiandre in a trio of birdsong, entitled Looking Southwest.

Blending with the percussive sounds of the bell tower, an electroacoustic composition by David Monacchi will frame the soundscape upon which the live music unfolds. As the bells of San Francesco fade, an on-site improvisation with Corrado Fantoni, Giovanni Mancuso (Laboratorio Nuovamusica Ensemble), David Monacchi, and a composition for three flutes by Walter Branchi will merge with the fluctuating lighting, the rise and fall of sound synchronizing with the rise and fall of dancing water and light. Framing the daily experience shared by all in the floating world of Venice, the work will be a celebration of the City of Water and of water itself.

Riflessi is a proposal for a meditative work, framing physical phenomena in harmony with original sound works. The piece is time-based, and though it is meant to utilize some built structures, will look largely to cues from the natural world around us.

Riflessi was conceived by Kristin Jones with three original sound works performed by Corrado Fantoni, Giovanni Mancuso (Laboratorio Nuovamusica Ensemble), and David Monacchi; and a composition for three flutes by Walter Branchi, proposed for the Gaggiandre di Sansovino.