AFTERNOON DREAMS
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943) by Maya Deren
Live soundtrack: Marco Cesarini & Henry McLusky
feat. Filippo Biagianti, real-time direction and video modulation
Marco Cesarini: compositions and arrangements, guitar, keyboards, piano, electronics, and bass
Jean Gambini: tenor sax
Andrea Angeloni: trombone, tuba, and euphonium
Davide Mazzoli: drums, percussion, and electronics
“Maya Deren was a naturalised North-American film director who worked mostly in the forties and fifties of the 20th century. Meshes of the Afternoon was her first short film. It is considered one of the most influential avant-garde films in the history of American cinema. Deren here deals with the theme of the double, which has played a crucial role in several art fields. Personally, I have always been fascinated by this symbolism […]. Our idea was to use her film as an introduction and then evolve into a modern-day silent cinema, with a quantic leap from 1943 to our present. Quoting someone else’s work is transfigured in the rendezvous of two lovers, which in turn generates deformed homuncular beings. The latter are our variations on the theme. Each music piece is provided with a narration of moving images, managed by Filippo Biagianti in real time. […] Difference and reiteration, hyperrealism and oneiric world, the individual and its double: these elements served to create imaginative divagations on the ‘noncontemporary,’ a notion we cherish that the present time has confused that of revival; in our case, the noncontemporary serves as a symbolic element of atemporal dreaming.” (Marco Cesarini)
Marco Cesarini. Born 1984, an eccentric and original musician who has also collaborated with painter Giuliano Del Sorbo both in Paintheatre (live painting) and in soundtracking La Passione di Cristo (Sant'Angelo in Vado - 2019). He writes music for theatre and founded Uqbar Orchestra, a ‘liquid’ band that works between jazz, ethnic music, and experimentation. In recent years, he has soundtracked three documentaries by Filippo Biagianti and, last year, has recorded two albums with his new formation “Marco Cesarini & Henry Mclusky,” whose first record was released on April 18, 2024 with the Nusica label.
Filippo Biagianti. In 2016, he directed two music videos for the musical project “Spartiti” (Max Collini and Jukka Reverberi). He was also in charge of the video direction during live performances. This project premiered at the Wall of Sound that same year. He has participated in numerous national and international film festivals, winning several awards.
A decade of bare, unvarnished Wall; of wild, but reasoned programming; of illustrious and essential proposals. A space for experimentation whose embryo hatched in 2015. But then images clung to the Wall like ivy does in Spring, and sounds were set free like outlandish fireflies giving off their flashes over nocturnal paths. Now the Wall has become a (mutant and mutable) meeting that can’t be missed. Senses are unchained in a space in which, nourished by vibrating gazes, foraged by precious imaginaries, suggestions are redeemed. Novel psycho-temporal premieres, unique experiences that, between improvisations, surgical synchronizations, and emotional experiments, have elevated the unreal and turned it into… a reality. Palazzo Gradari, the temple of imagination. The five events of this year, poised between light and abyss, will give voice to original impromptu, and therefore absolute, experiences. Past the 2015-2024 twilight, the Wall of Sound is ready to take off.
Anthony Ettorre
We have looked this decade of projecting images onto the Wall of Palazzo Gradari in the eyes. We have caressed the profile of musicians intertwined with film directors of the past and the present, between the calculated gestures of actors and actresses or immersed in pure pictures untethered from any story. We have put all our desires in a row. The result was these 5 evenings, made of 5 unique live soundtracks, several unexpected meetings, animals, soccer players, and little dolls. The common thread – do not touch bare-handed! – might be the sweet dissolution of identity, when it becomes too stiff and makes us cantankerous and savage. It could also be the desire to discuss seriously about games and playing, discarding the fascist trivial assertion that it’s “stuff for children.” We’ll be waiting for critical analyses. We will never give up.
Vittorio Ondedei
The Wall of Sound reversed the idea that this solid, vertical object, the wall, conveys the notion of blocking, filtering, pushing back, separating, defending, shutting.
The images and sounds that have been played on that surface over the years made that wall crumble and collapse, every time.
The miracle is repeated punctually with the same enthusiasm and the same desire.
The wall becomes liquid, and we can cross it. Beyond it, there is infinity. By Palazzo Gradari, the divisive function of walls was never given a chance to exist. Ever.
Giuliano Antinori
TUTTE LE PROIEZIONI SONO GRATUITE
