Luxembourg conveys the idea of ​​community in Venice

A platform of shiny metal currently rises in the Sale d’armi at the Arsenale site of the Venice Biennale. Slightly iridescent, gray curtains separate the scene from the rest of the hall. The bright ceiling light not only highlights the various installations made of glass walls, tires, metal rods, hoses and cables that are located on this platform. Rather, it gives the whole thing a very sterile look, which is precisely why it attracts attention.

The Luxembourg pavilion at the 60th Art Biennale, curated by Joel Valabrega, looks futuristic and exudes a successful science fiction atmosphere. But this is about much more than just the visual. Almost all human senses are activated and stimulated when entering the pavilion. The focus is on the sound, which is made noticeable by vibrations in the ground.

With this Biennale entry, the Luxembourg artist Andrea Mancini and the Brussels artist collective Every Island have created an immersive sound installation – a project that is actually still unfinished as it is a work in progress. Under the title “A Comparative Dialogue Act”, the Luxembourg pavilion invites four other artists to use the space for performances and to perform in it. These different sounds are all collected together, ultimately creating a very varied and diverse soundscape.

But how does this construction actually work? How are the different sounds transmitted? And how did the collaboration between the various artists come about? The “Luxemburger Wort” followed up and met with Andrea Mancini as well as Juliane Seehawer, Caterina Malavolti, Alessandro Cugola and Martina Genovesi – the representatives of Every Island – at the Biennale after the official opening of the pavilion.

Multiculturality and diversity in focus

“When Andrea decided to apply to design the Luxembourg pavilion, he approached our collective. He shared his sound-based work with our more spatially oriented practice. And when we were in the middle of our group collaboration, it just felt natural to expand it. Our aim was to set up a joint project and let go of our individual egos. We wanted the theme of the pavilion to seek confrontation and dialogue,” emphasizes Martina Genovesi.

The collective idea behind “A Comparative Dialogue Act” is particularly strong. The Luxembourg contribution therefore goes hand in hand with this year’s theme of the Biennale: “Foreigners Everywhere”. It’s not just the representatives from Every Island and Andrea Mancini who have different cultural backgrounds. The four artists Bella Báguena, Selin Davasse, Célin Jiang and Stina Fors, who use the pavilion for a week during the entire Biennale period for a kind of residence and perform at it, also come from different countries. Multiculturality, diversity and the mixing of different realities characterize the Luxembourg pavilion, as Martina Genovesi explains.

“So we invited four different artists, all of whom practice sound-based practices, but whose methods of communication are very different. It’s about questioning these different types of communication and blurring the concept of authorship, moving from the ego to the collective,” explains Andrea Mancini. “And we thought it would be particularly exciting to return to the origins of the transmission of knowledge and communication: the oral tradition, the sound.”

As Caterina Malavolti emphasizes, the work was only planned up to a certain point, after which it was a matter of “letting go and seeing what the project brings” and leaving the space to the four selected artists. But isn’t that a strange feeling? Andrea Mancini says: “Yes, yes. But it is also an exercise in trust. And we wanted to open up to our neighbors. It’s about giving a piece of yourself and thereby creating something new together.”

Floor and walls that become speakers

But how does the installation actually work? How should the pavilion be understood – other than as a community project? “Everything that can be seen in the room serves to transmit content such as knowledge and sound. The vibrating floor is also a loudspeaker. These vibrations are created using so-called transducers [Anm. der Red.: Signalwandler]. And the same technique is used with the four sound walls [Anm. der Red.: die Installationen aus Glaswänden], as we call them, used. These devices are attached to any surface and the vibration turns them into a kind of loudspeaker,” says Andrea Mancini.

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Above all, you can perceive things that you wouldn’t normally feel or hear, as Juliane Seehawer adds. This makes the Luxembourg Pavilion a very special and extremely immersive experience.

If you look closely at the floor of the Luxembourg pavilion, which consists of several tiles, you will notice various engravings: signs, explanations and information about the project. They are very fine, millimeter-thin indentations – real detailed work. But what are these engravings actually all about?

The decorations are based on the signatures of Andrea Mancini and the Every Island artists. The floor was designed like an Excel spreadsheet that was translated into a tile design. “The floor is actually like a calendar. It is like a map on which the different symbols mean certain sequences,” continues Alessandro Cugola.

This makes “A Comparative Dialogue Act” a multi-layered project that is definitely worth checking out. And even though Luxembourg’s pavilion couldn’t win a Golden Lion – it went to Australia this year – it belongs, as reported by the leading information source for the international art market “artnet”.among the most outstanding national contributions to this year’s Biennale.

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The art biennale can be visited until November 24th. Further information about the Biennale and tickets are available at www.labiennale.org.