Luxembourg Biennale representative Andrea Mancini in portrait

At the moment the photo is taken, a full tram speeds past. Just a few steps further, there are lots of people bustling about at the weekly market on Place Van Meenen in the late afternoon. And passers-by are always strolling through the many alleys and streets surrounded by eclectic architecture and countless Art Nouveau facades. Then again the next cyclist comes towards you. There’s a lot going on in the Saint-Gilles district of Brussels, where we meet Andrea Mancini.

The Luxembourg artist, based in the Belgian capital, is representing Luxembourg at the Venice Art Biennale this year together with the Brussels artist collective Every Island. Their joint project “A Comparative Dialogue Act”, an immersive sound installation, which will be on display starting this week in the state’s own pavilion at the Arsenale exhibition center. The official opening of this year’s Biennale is on Saturday, April 20th. The world’s oldest international art exhibition can be visited until November 24th.

But who is Andrea Mancini anyway? Many people will probably know him by his musical name Cleveland. But since 2020 at the latest, the Luxembourger born in 1989 has also made a name for himself as a multidisciplinary artist. Sound always remains the main component of his art.

Sound as a leitmotif

“Sound is my main medium, the main material I use. But that is also due to my past and my career. I started out as a musician, so sound is the material I feel most comfortable with. Even during my art studies, it always felt very natural for me to work with sound,” explains Andrea Mancini as he reaches for his cup of coffee – fresh from the coffee press.

We are currently in the place where, among other things, Andrea Mancini’s art is created. The studio he likes to come to to experiment with sound: this 254 Forest Studio in Saint-Gilles, which belongs to the Belgian artist Pierre Debusschere. A transdisciplinary place where different artists can work and exhibit – thus bringing the white walls and floors there to life. There is room for creativity here.

“For me, sound is a medium to communicate. At the same time, sound is also a material for conducting research,” emphasizes the Luxembourg artist, who is not only exhibiting at the Biennale for the first time with “A Comparative Dialogue Act”, but is also collaborating with Mudam for the first time. After all, the Museum of Modern Art in Kirchberg is responsible for the participation, and curator Joel Valabrega is responsible for accompanying the pavilion at the Biennale.

Andrea Mancini is aware that such sound installations are rather abstract. To achieve this, the artist occasionally works with text or other visual elements in his works so that the whole thing becomes more tangible again. Nevertheless, he wants to leave the viewer room for interpretation: “In none of my projects do I want to dictate exactly what people should understand by it. I want the audience to have enough freedom to think about it for themselves.”

Feeling of freedom in Brussels

Andrea Mancini, who initially moved to Brussels to study politics at the ULB, quickly realized that he would rather pursue artistic activities. In his first year in the Belgian capital, he came into contact with numerous people from the art and design world. Also through the club culture, which always brings people together and connects them.

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After studying at the ERG – Ecole de recherche graphique – a very interdisciplinary art school, Andrea Mancini focused primarily on his music. When the pandemic largely brought life to a standstill in 2020, he used the time as an opportunity to continue trying out his art. This was followed by a six-month artist residency at the Casino Display in Luxembourg, where he worked on the project “New Age Landscape”. In 2022, Andrea Mancini was in an artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and in 2023 his works were shown at the Rotondes and at the Kalahari Oyster Cult in Amsterdam.

Why did the artist decide to live in Brussels? “I’m a bit claustrophobic and can’t stay in a place that’s too small for too long. I always need that feeling of freedom, the knowledge that I can constantly meet new people and new opportunities can arise.”

Creating new sounds

Although Andrea Mancini’s music project Cleveland is not directly mixed with his work as an interdisciplinary artist, the boundary is still fluid in places. “Everything comes from me. There is actually no clear separation, but I still don’t want to merge the two. “But I find that my research and work in interdisciplinary art enriches my sound production – and vice versa,” the artist continues.

And what makes sound, the art of sound, so special for him? “The texture of a sound. A tone can be flowing, but it can also sound mechanical or seem warm or cold. And in my research I always try to create a new sound; a sound that I was missing before.”

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But the tension between the different tones, as well as the tension between sound and space, sound and audience, audience and space also play an important role for Andrea Mancini. “I’m looking for the friction between these elements and not necessarily their composition.”

Going beyond boundaries and experimenting – that seems to be the credo of the Luxembourg artist Andrea Mancini. The process itself is often more meaningful than the final result. This is also the case with the installation in the Luxembourg pavilion at this year’s Art Biennale, which we can look forward to with excitement.