Luca Vitone

I only have eyes for you

October-November 2004

Luca Vitone

I only have eyes for you

October-November 2004

Inside a very large room, within the exposition space, Luca Vitone built a small wooden room, slightly risen from the floor; an artificial natural space in which the ceiling is grass and the floor is sky. A sculpture, an installation and a performance, the performance being an individual yoga class with a yoga teacher.
The opening and the finissage of the exhibition hosted two musical performances by Elio Marchesini.

Press release

First made in London at the invitation of Lotta Hammer Lab in the spaces of Westlondonprojects (2001), and re-presented in Italy (2003) on the occasion of the exhibition Moltitudini – Solitudini at the Museion in Bolzano, Italy, Luca Vitone’s installation I only have eyes for you offers the opportunity for an intimate experience with one’s body and mind in relation to the surrounding space.

A cube raised off the ground constructed of rough pine planks that takes the same dimensions as Lotta Hammer’s room and repurposes it into a larger one. Inside is a very simple decor consisting of sky-blue carpeting on the floor with two white cloud-shaped mats and a green lawn with white daisies on the ceiling. Only two people at a time can enter it: the student and the teacher. So I thought of dedicating the workshop to yoga philosophy as a tool for self-knowledge”.

Permormance I Percussionisti di Milano
Music by C. Pirola, J. Cage, T.Riley, P. Smadbeck, M. Campioni.

Their interest in Eastern culture allowed these composers to recognize in sounds the ability to generate multiple emotional states: in these pieces their focus is on inducing a certain reaction in the listener rather than on orchestral qualities or the proper organization of sounds. There is no doubt, in fact, that in Reich’s minimal music, characterized by the constant repetition of rhythmic and melodic particles, we are dealing with a powerful hypnotic channel. Similarly, in Cage’s music, attentive more to silences than to sounds, there is an intention to induce meditation.

The musicians of the group I Percussionisti di Milano hold important roles in the Italian percussion scene, both in teaching and in collaborations with internationally renowned orchestras and artists. Their focus on the contemporary repertoire stems from the need to enhance, through research and experimentation, that family of instruments, percussion instruments, which only in recent years has been managing to carve out a leading space for itself.

Biography

The representation and investigation of the notion of place is for Luca Vitone (Genoa, 1964) a primary element of knowledge: a constant research on space, both social and individual, has led the artist to deal with different means of expression, ranging from cartography to music. He has exhibited in numerous public and private institutions including Centro Pecci (Prato, 2004), La Biennale di Venezia (Venice, 2003), MAMCO (Geneva, 2003), Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella, 2003), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome, 2000), P.S.1 (New York, 2000). Lives and works in Milan.

Musical Finissage: Sandro Cerino and Elio Marchesini

Inside Luca Vitone’s installation I only have eyes for you, it was possible to receive individual yoga lessons (iyengar style and ashtanga vinyasa style).

During the finissage, the duet between percussionist Elio Marchesini and saxophonist Sandro Cerino and Marchesini’s performance inside Vitone’s installation demonstrated once again how ASSAB ONE’s spaces are, thanks to their characteristics, an interesting and functional location not only for art but also for music; in fact, despite their large size, some areas have acoustic properties that amplify sound, allowing it to expand without creating rumbling, as if it were a sound box.

  • Luca Vitone, I only have eyes for you, 2004
  • Luca Vitone, I only have eyes for you, 2004
  • Luca Vitone, I only have eyes for you, 2004