DESASTRES is an experimental noise project that synchronises sound with image and takes the form of a durational solo performance as installation. Marco Fusinato is performing live in the Australia Pavilion for the duration of the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. He uses an electric guitar as a signal generator into mass amplification to improvise slabs of noise, saturated feedback and discordant intensities that trigger a deluge of images onto a freestanding floor-to-ceiling LED wall. The images are sourced via a stream of words that have been put into an open search across multiple online platforms. There is no theme as such, rather the immersion of sound and image is open for the audience to interpret and make sense of. The intent is to create some kind of hallucination, elation in disorientation and exhaustion from confusion. The work is an invitation for audiences to come together within a high-intensity concentration of energy. What can’t be seen, can be felt: sound as physical matter which creates a transformative experience.
This expansive publication features a new essay by Branden W. Joseph, professor of art history at Columbia University and an extensive interview by curator Alexie Glass-Kantor with Marco Fusinato. It also includes texts by critical theorist and filmmaker Elizabeth Povinelli, AI researcher and author Kate Crawford, writer and curator Chus Martínez, and musicians/outre-guitarists Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Stephen O’Malley (SUNN O)))) and Bruce Russell (Dead C).
Edited by Alexie Glass-Kantor and Michelle Newton
Texts by Kate Crawford, Branden W. Joseph, Alexie Glass-Kantor, Chus Martínez, Thurston Moore, Stephen O’Malley, Elizabeth Povinelli and Bruce Russell
Designed by by Žiga Testen and Marco Fusinato
Co-published with the Australia Council for the Arts
2022, English, softcover, 21 x 28 cm, 408 pages
ISBN 978-0-646-85617-9
