Music for a long time (e/static 1999-2009)

On April 9, 1999 in via Parma 31 in Turin, e/static started off its activity with an exhibition by two Italian artists, Daniela De Lorenzo and Addo Lodovico Trinci. After several group exhibitions (“Lavori diversi 1 e 2 / Diverse works 1 and 2”, “Inediti / Unpublished”), in April 2000 a solo show by Paolo Piscitelli was set up, which was decisive, as one will be able to understand later, for the evolution of this young artist from Turin (he was twenty-nine at the time). Exactly one year later, in April 2001, Rolf Julius’ first solo exhibition took place, as well as e/static's first show with a foreign artist and the first to showcase the work of a visual artist who included the element of sound in his research (a veritable pioneer in this field, already active since the second half of the 1970s). Nevertheless, this was only the first instance of a long series that was yet to come: indeed, already the following year, three solo shows by international artists were set up. Every artist, each one in his own very personal way, was active in the same field of research, the American Steve Roden (“a year of skies"), the French Patrice Carré (“Suoni / Sons”), and Terry Fox (“Vocale vocale”), also American. At the end of that year, e/static’s reputation as a space for research (“for present-time art”, one can still read on its headed notepaper, next to the logo) especially dedicated to the work of artists dealing with both sound and image, was finally established, and its name began to circulate even abroad, since it dealt with a field of research particularly practiced in Germany (primarily in Berlin) and in the United States. Between 2002 and 2003, a series of performances was organized, some of which were executed by renowned international artists, such as the American Brandon LaBelle, the Japanese Akio Suzuki, the German Werner Durand, as well as the Italians Cane Capovolto, Aurelio Andrighetto, Giuseppe Ielasi. Subsequently, a group exhibition was set up, “Before and after sound”, which collected examples of visual research indeed 'before and after sound', (as the title clearly stated) gathering together nine artists from all around the world, with the goal of exploring a heterogeneous international area, showcasing at the same time the works of masters and the ones of young artists in the making: Patrice Carré, Terry Fox, Rolf Julius. Christina Kubisch, Hans Peter Kuhn, Paolo Piscitelli, Steve Roden, Akio Suzuki, Miki Yui. Other solo exhibitions will follow, through the years: two more by Rolf Julius (one in 2005 and another in 2007), the second by Steve Roden (in 2004), two by Miki Yui (2004, 2007), two by Hans Peter Kuhn (2004, 2008), one by Arnold Dreyblatt (2007), one by Luca Vitone (2005), then the solo shows by Vincenzo Cabiati (again in 2005), Christina Kubisch, Akio Suzuki and Dominique Petitgand (2006), the second solo exhibition for e/static by Paolo Piscitelli (2008) and the group exhibition “This is the time (and this is the recording of the time)”, curated by Simone Menegoi with Carlo Fossati in 2007, which showcased a choice of works by international artists on the topic of time, from Luca Vitone to Goran Petercol, from Dominique Petitgand to Tehching Hsieh. Finally, in November 2008, the project “Ways to Nowhere” was set up, with video works (some on their worldwide premiere) by Carlos Casas and Thomas Köner, showcased in a setting which was rigorous and unusual at the same time. Many artists (Patrice Carré, Steve Roden, Akio Suzuki, Hans Peter Kuhn, Miki Yui, Thomas Köner) among those presented in the past ten years, have in fact set up their first Italian solo show at e/static. Moreover, the visionair project was carried out (it started off in 2001 as EXIT-01, with Paolo Piscitelli, Steve Roden, Simone Mussat Sartor and Luca Vitone), presenting performances and concerts, amongst others, by Arnold Dreyblatt, Junko Wada, Giancarlo Toniutti, Rolf Julius and Miki Yui, Paolo Inverni, Carlos Casas, Loren Chasse, Patrice Carré + Mathieu Chauvin, Michael Graeve, Paul Hendrikse. Recently (just last December), this project was held for the eighth year. Among the most relevant publications by e/static: in 2000, a catalogue on its first exhibition ever (“Daniela De Lorenzo and Addo Lodovico Trinci"), then the production of two original CDs, one by Paolo Piscitelli (“Cores mix 1”, 2002) and one by Rolf Julius + Miki Yui (“small sounds meet small music”, 2006), along with a short book by Paolo Piscitelli (“Seconda intenzione / Second intention”, 2000), and a special limited edition by Terry Fox “Vocale vocale” (also made with the contribution of the Centre Culturel Francais in Turin). In 2005, e/static produced a large ‘light and sound’ installation by Hans Peter Kuhn, Advertising, selected for the special section Constellations at Artissima 12, the international fair of contemporary art in Turin.
In November 2006, e/static opened a new space, blank, in Turin again, in via Reggio 27, which, from then on, flanks the other already ‘historic’ one, with the intent of “expanding our possibility to showcase the work of experimenting authors who express themselves through the use of a wide range of media” (C. Fossati). At blank’s, starting from Thursday April 16, 2009 at 6.30 pm, a video station will be set up: some materials selected from e/static’s activity over the last ten years will be screened from this station, for they are representative of the peculiarities of this reality. There will be a hitherto unscreened video shot at the time of Julius’ first exhibition in 2001; one by Simone Mussat Sartor, who edited the video footage taken during EXIT-01, in October 2001; then a short video shot by Steve Roden at his exhibition in 2002, “a year of skies”; the medium-length film “trigger”, shot by Franco Rivoira and Patrizia Roussel in 2003 during Akio Suzuki's brief stay in Torino; a video shot by Miki Yui at her first exhibition in 2004; and finally, the hitherto unscreened “Works with Sound”, which documents the preparation of Hans Peter Kuhn’s first exhibition shot by Junko Wada in 2004. Around the video station, there will be a selection of texts and materials which document moments of e/static's activity, both in the space in via Parma 31 and in the one in via Reggio 27.
Finally, on blank’s large terrace, Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna (two artists who are collaborating with e/static for the first time) will start off “Soil Practice”, an ‘open’ intervention of undefined length, the results of which will be officially presented to the public at the end of May, and which won't be in any way ‘locked up’ inside time limits which are too precise or too short.
Caretto and Spagna have enthusiastically accepted Carlo Fossati's suggestion to intervene on blank’s still unexplored terrace with an unprecedented operation, which will also include elements from e/static’s history, which the artists will freely and independently process, according to the course of action which strikes this couple of artists/researchers as the most congenial.