Yuval Avital
VOICE
Yuval Avital
Israel/Italy
Born in Jerusalem in 1977 and living in Milan, multimedia artist, composer and guitarist Yuval Avital develops his works in a variety of spaces, including public venues, industrial archaeological sites, theatres and museums, challenging the traditional crystallised categories that separate the arts.
In his exhibitions, performances, immersive installations, total-operas, large-scale musical
‘rituals’, and concerts one can find dancers, contemporary music ensembles, masters of ancient cultures, recruited individuals or communities, multi-video projections, meditative tactile ambients, advanced technological instruments, archive materials, scientific data, Sound-Sculptures and printed artworks.
Each of Avital’s artworks is a unique experiential, poetic and emotional microcosm with its own identity, fruit of a meticulous research carried out in a carefully coded language, confronting the reoccurring themes of archetype and structure; ancestral and currant global-era human condition; nature and hybridity; ritual and science.
SELECTION OF ARTWORKS AND EXHIBITIONS
NEPHILìM a solo exhibition of 60 sonic masks (materic masks which have a loudspeakers in their mouth) created in collaboration with some of the most important Tuscan artisans, carriers of the traditional local craftsmanship techniques. (Marino Marini Museum, Florence – 05 October 2019-31 December 2019)
GRADES OF FOREIGNNESS Two large scale installations (LANDS v.2 and FOREIGN BODIES N.1& N.2) and performance for the opening event of Biennale OSTRALE in Dresden (Biennale OSTRALE, Dresden, 3 July 2019-1 September 2019)
ICON-SONIC POSTCARDS N.2 – POSTCARDS FROM ROME (Macro December 2018 – December 2019) A one-year-long-large scale Art-Show in the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome MACRO ASILO exploring the roman territory through the voice of its habitants; including numerous performances, art actions, visuals, flash mobs which will conclude into an immersive icon-sonic installation.
SELECTION OF ICON-SONIC ARTWORKS
GIOBBE (2018) Premiered at Rome’s Terme di Diocleziano, commissioned by the Italian ministry of Education in collaboration with RAI, and the Italian chairmanship of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).. Giobbe is a total artwork that whirls together voices, sounds and images in an ancient biblical text, leading musical ensembles, ancestral notes of traditional religious soloists, and multi video projection.
Fuga Perpetua (2016), in collaboration with the United Nations (UNHCR), whose protagonists are refugees (Teatro Comunale “L. Pavarotti”, Modena; Brighton Festival; NEAT Festival Nottingham, 2016 and Tel Aviv Museum, 2017), Immersive 32-channels sound installation that includes a vocal crowd and projections of 31 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sudan and other countries.
KOLOT (2008, various Italian theatres) gathered 12 traditional singers coming from Israel and belonging to different religions, ethnicities and cultures, an ensemble of soloists, video and electronics following in parallel “classic”, graphic and verbal scores.
SELECTION OF MASSIVE-SONIC WORKS
URLA (2019) Massive Sonic Work n.6 for 300 performers, itinerary geographical score for the entire city center. Premiere 1 September 2019, Open Sound Festival, official main event of Matera 2019, European Capital of Culture, Italy.
REKA (V.1 – Warsaw Autumn Festival & MiTo SettembreMusica Milan, 2014; V.2 – Teatro Comunale Valli, Festival Aperto, Reggio Emilia 2016), for 6 traditional vocal masters (expanding from a Tibetan Rinpoche Lama, a Mongolian throat singer and an epic Bukhara chanter and to a post-punk extended vocal artist), two percussions and 2 crowd music ensembles – the first of hundreds of voices and the second of percussionists;
KARAGATAN (Philippines, 2013) for 100 traditional gong and bamboo musicians from 11 countries from South
East Asia; GARON for 45 tubas, 6 percussions, 3 opera directors, choir and live electronics, which was the ending event of the Dirty Corner installation by Anish Kapoor (Milan, 2012); MISE EN ABÎME (RAI Studios, Milan, 2011) for a vocal crowd of 100 people (the first Crowd Music Ensemble), 34 accordions, soloists and 4 conductors.
