ACTION MUSIC ACTION PAINTING MARIO MARIANI / GIULIANO DEL SORBO A grand piano and a set of big blank canvases, unrolling on the stage.

Two artists: a pianist and composer, Mario Mariani and a visual artist, Giuliano Del Sorbo, gave birth to an impromptu composition, as visual as musical.

The music made of characteristic sounds and the big human shapes, quickly painted, produce a very particular flowing from the personal contribution by the two protagonists.

Rather than a soundtrack for images or images that can render the musical composition, this is a work of art that becomes each time a unique and unrepeatable event. It’s a vertiginous composition, sonorous and “materic”, which developes in real time in“Action Music Action Painting”. A musician and a visual artist, both with distintion in their fields, decide here to experience an untold journey, a sort of a jump into the dark, seeking for a true “creative act”, often unleashed by unknown emotional and unrational forces. By a prepared piano and a set of big blank canvas unrolling on the stage, for forty minutes the spectator is led in a fascinating path: not a nonstop dialogue but an unison of “ideal” sounds and pictorial motion that interact towards an “extemporary composition, catching the energy of the creative spark when it happens”. It’s hard to tell who’s inspiring who, in this process, free from determination, the leading themes of the performance: the purity of Man and the following fall from his “original divinity” (referring to “The Gods in exile”, by H.Heine). Hard to tell who’s the composer, the improviser, the performer All is intense, poetical, involving and above all unique and unrepeatable: a continuous crescendo of uncommon sounds (the musician often plays directly on the body of the grand piano with open hands, tools, objects and more) and quick and talented images that make “the soul resonate”. The audience in the end will state, with their presence, the deepness of the act and which passions Action Music Action Painting will be able to provoke. As well as during the debut of this charming performance/show, held at the Rossini Theatre in Pesaro, in a yearly acclaimed Festival Season devoted to new experience regarding the “contemporary scene”. Music and painting between fairy-tale and myths have caught the audience that was so concentrated for the all performance length and seducted by a show that in its finale evoked, with a remarkable light design, a museum, an exhibition, a legend.

Elena Gramaccioni SOME NOTES BY MARIO MARIANI

I met Giuliano Del Sorbo several years ago and a mutual sympathy was born immediately, which later has become a true friendship. We found a lot of common views about the meaning of “art”: his painting is cinetical, rhythmical, musical and my music, as people quite often say, “materical”, visual. We had a confirmation of these facts during the realization of Action Music Action Painting: during the performance our reciprocal gestures “become theatre” and the show is built in every moment. On the stage Giuliano is placed in front of six big blank canvas. Even I define my mental place blank: each idea that comes from us is a “miracle of the creation”. The story we’re going to tell is even this: the first painted canvas represent the Genesis, the lifle, the dynamic tension between the opposites (male and female, positive and negative). The following ones portray the develop, the chaos, the fragmentation and the separation of Man from his divine part (our literary reference is “The Gods in exile” by Heine, where we imagine the gods like men overwhelmed by the prevailing materialism. The last canvas – that’s very touching - describes a woman who lies asleep, in a metaphor of the Death, intended as a passage for a next rebirth. The themes of Giuliano always deal with human figures (he calls his creative process “human waves”) evoking a kind of “abstract figurative” who gives us back the essence, the soul of the Man, like a photograph of an aura, taken with the “sciamanic sensitivity” that here becomes a “medium”, like Marcel Duchamp says in his lecture The creative act, which our performance starts from. I often have some doubts about “multimedial operations” that see the combination of music and visuals (and I also mean soundtracks, where so often I’m involved in) that reveals the sheer use of backgrounds, like “sound carpets”. In Action Music Action Painting the music has deep analogies with painting. I prefer the sound in its “ancestral meaning”, trying to evoke and provoke an “ideal sound” in an apparently “closed system” as the piano could be with its two main limitations: the equal temperament and the control on a note after it’s been played, no more changeable (although it’s always possible on stringed and wood instruments). I intend the piano like a being (even human) and I compare the keyboard to the rational mind that operates a distinction between the sounds, taking from their origin the “right one”. The inner body of an instrument is something “occult”, not easily reachable, like the unconscious. My piano is a “prepared” piano and often I stand up while I’m playing and I know this gesture is strong. Even the just mentioned prepared piano is today something new and old at the same moment; something already seen before, “eaten” but still not so well assimilated. It’s often relegated to a gesture for its own sake, often the elitary usage amongst contemporary music. This surely doesn’t help to consider it for what it is: just a sound. There aren’t any sound hierarchies that can make a “moral distintion” between a perfect chord and a cluster played on the strings with the open hand, or some balls making resonate on the body of piano. During this performance I force the piano sound towards a less known sound canvas. This “direct action”, without the mind/keyboard apparatus is for me even a recollection to the idea of origin. This concept is further developed on Utopiano, my piano solo cd whose cover was realized by Giuliano, who realized a wonderful canvas of 100x50 with an action painting and we called it “Bitume Sonata”. One last consideration is about the main element of Action Music Action Painting: improvisation. I prefer considering this so overused term as “composition in real time”: not a variation on a theme, but an extemporary composition, with fresh sparkling energy, caught in the same time it’s happening. This instantaneous process gives no time to ego of “selfplease” and the upcoming idea is placed on a not-reversible path provoking a reintegration amongst the figures (often separated) of the composer, performer and improviser. Giuliano and I wish that this process of de-mentalization happens even in the audience, who is attending the show, without the research of the just seen, just heared and a comparison with other similar operas So the first act of the performance is over. The second is all up the spectator, who contemplates (with the two artist on the stage too!) the creation and his own glance. This happened in the evening of 23 May 2010 at Teatro Rossini: the audience contemplated the illuminated canvas on the stage, making the theatre change into an art gallery and at the same time contemplating himself after forty minutes of an intense performance, bringing back, we believe, something deep and intangible he was part of.

M.M. Marcel Duchamp THE CREATIVE ACT (1957)

Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity. To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing. If we give the attributes of a medium to the artist, we must then deny him the state of consciousness on the esthetic plane about what he is doing or why he is doing it. All his decisions in the artistic execution of the work rest with pure intuition and cannot be translated into a self-analysis, spoken or written, or even thought out. T.S. Eliot, in his essay on «Tradition and individual talent», writes: «The more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates; the more perfectly will the mind digest and translate the passions which are its material». Millions of artists create; only a few thousands are discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less are consecrated by posterity. In the last analysis, the artist may shout from all the rooftops that he is a genius; he will have to wait for the verdict of the spectator in order that his declarations take a social value and that, finally, posterity includes him in the primers of Art History. I know that this statement will not meet with the approval of many artists who refuse his mediumistic role and insist on the validity of their awareness in the creative act – yet art history has consistently decided upon the virtues of a work of art through considerations completely divorced from the rationalized explanations of the artist. If the artist, as a human being, full of the best intentions toward himself and the whole world, plays no role at all in the judgment of his own work, how can one describe the phenomenon which prompts the spectator to react critically to the work of art? In other words how does this reaction come about? This phenomenon is comparable to a transference from the artist to the spectator in the form of an esthetic osmosis taking place through the inert matter, such as pigment, piano or marble. But before we go further, I want to clarify our understanding of the word «art» – to be sure, without an attempt to a definition. What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way as a bad emotion is still an emotion. Therefore, when I refer to «art coefficient», I will be understood that I refer not only to great art, but I am trying to describe the subjective mechanism which produces art in a raw state – à l’état brut – bad, good or indifferent. In the creative act, the artist goes from intention to realization through a chain of totally subjective reactions. His struggle toward the realization is a series of efforts, pains, satisfactions, refusals, decisions, which also cannot and must not be fully self-conscious, at least on the esthetic plane. The result of this struggle is a difference between the intention and its realization, a difference which the artist is not aware of. Consequently, in the chain of reactions accompanying the creative act, a link is missing. This gap which represents the inability of the artist to express fully his intention; this difference between what he intended to realize and did realize, is the personal «art coefficient» contained in the work.. In other word, the personal «art coefficient» is like an arithmetical relation between the unexpressed but intended and the unintentionally expressed. To avoid a misunderstanding, we must remember that this «art coefficient» is a personal expression of art à l’état brut, that is still in a raw state, which must be «refined» as pure sugar from molasses, by the spectator; the digit of this coefficient has no bearing whatsoever on this verdict. The creative act takes another aspect when the spectator experiences the phenomenon of transmutation; through the change from inert matter into a work of art, an actual transubstantiation has taken place, and the role of the spectator is to determine the weight of the work on the esthetic scale. All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives its final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists.

[Lecture at the Convention of the American Federation of Arts, Houston, Texas, 1957, April 3-6. Published in Art News, vol. 56, n. 4, summer 1957.]

ACTION MUSIC ACTION PAINTING DATA SHEETS

THIS IS THE CURRENT STAGE VERSION AS SHOWN ON THE ENCLOSED DVD (mt.10x10) for different stage measures a custom data sheet will be sent

VISUAL 6 canvas mt. 4x2 13 profiles ETC source four 36° 750w 6 ERS (plano-convex) 1200W lights with barn doors and gel frame holders 25 channels 2,5 Kw 1 light console 2 gobos 77806 leaf break up LG Rosco Lee filters: 201, 202, 204, 152, 242 required batten and cables black ceiling-height stage wings 1 stage electrician 2 stagehands 6 overhead lights to connect to the dimmer (provided by the Artists)

AUDIO 1 grand piano Steinway&Sons model C/D or equivalent 2 condenser microphones AKG 414 mic (or Neumann) 2 condenser microphones for hall recording 1 dynamic microphone Shure SM58 (or equivalent) 2 nexo speaker PS15 as piano monitor 2 nexo speaker as P.A. 1 cd player professional hi-end audio mixer console (with the possibility of sfx send/return on the stage and to send direct out separate tracks to a computer for recording – see below*) lexicon PCM70 or equivalent (reverb preset with 5 sec. or more of reverberation) D.I. Channel computer with multitrack audio recording software (the audio tracks must be copied into the artist’s hard disk at the end of the show)

* a Roland RC20 loop station (provided by the Artists) on the stage has to receive the send signal (from the microphones) from the audio console and return to the mixer

Management: Lucia Pascali (UK) Email: [email protected] Mobile (UK) +44 7783987079 Mobile (IT) + 39 345 5229806

Press office: Chiara Giacobelli (Italy) Email: [email protected] Mobile + 39 349 2556643 Photos © Luigi Angelucci Email: [email protected]

Rassegna Stampa

Testata: IL RESTO DEL CARLINO (MARCHE) data: 25 MAGGIO 2010

Rassegna Stampa

Testata: IL MESSAGGERO (PU) data: 23 MAGGIO 2010

Rassegna Stampa

Testata: CORRIERE ADRIATICO data: 21 MAGGIO 2010

BIO MARIO MARIANI

Composer & pianist, born in Pesaro (Italy), 1970. Piano degree at Conservatory G. Rossini. He writes music for movies, TV, cartoon, theatre, chamber and electronic music. His soundtracks for cinema have taken part at Cannes, Venice, New York and Berlin film festivals. As a performer, he likes to express himself through different styles, with particular attention to improvisation and audience participation, with concerts in Europe and the U.S. In 1992 he founded a 9 member band called “Broz Ensemble” that performs exclusively his own compositions; a remarkable cooperation consists in the teen-opera Isabella by Azio Corghi. In 2003 Teatro Stabile delle Marche commissioned him the music for the play “Le Borgueois Gentilhomme”, with the Italian top-class comic star Giorgio Panariello. In 2004 he starts working with filmmaker Vittorio Moroni (“You must be the wolf, 2004; Licu’s Holidays, 2007, Eve and Adam , 2009), and writes music for advertising agencies, working for Microsoft, Toyota, Fiat , as well as the Biennale of Venice (Coèfore by Eschilus and United Nations. Several commissions in 2006, among them: LUZ for orchestra and “Il Parlatore eterno”, opera for baritone and 7 pianos and a new music for Venice Film Festival. Over the years he was invited by many european associations and the Italian Institutes of Culture to hold piano recitals. Mario Mariani has won the “Novaracinefestival” award for “best music” with “Sotto il mio giardino” by Andrea Lodovichetti (Babelgum – Looking for Genius Award – Cannes) In 2010 receives a commission from Filarmonica Marchigiana for a humoresque orchestral piece called Bolero 2.0 and during the summer Mario decides to move a step further, staying and living for one month in a cave on the top of Monte Nerone, between Marche and Umbria with a grand piano, a recording system and a tent, offering each day an open performance to the audience. His piano solo cd Utopiano is going to be released soon.

www.mariomariani.com www.myspace.com/mariomarianispace Movie soundtracks: 2009 “Eva e Adamo” (90’) di Vittorio Moroni – prod. 50N 2008 “L’ultima stella” (90’) di G.Assanti - Grieci Productions 2007 “Le ferie di Licu” (90’) di Vittorio Moroni prod. 50N/Raicinema 2007 “Sotto il mio giardino” (20’) di Andrea Lodovichetti. prod.Centro Sperimentale Cinematografia 2006 “Il matrimonio negato” di Antonio Ciano prod. Nuvola Film 2004 “Tu devi essere il Lupo” (90’) di Vittorio Moroni prod. Metafilm 2003 “Sulle tracce del gatto” (50’) di Vittorio Moroni e Andrea Caccia prod. Mikado 2002 “Il naso storto” (20’) di Antonio Ciano prod. Nuvola Film 2002 “Da lontano” (8’) di Mauro Santini 2001 “Cainà” di Gennaro Righelli (1922) (65’) film muto 2001 “Di ritorno" (12') di Mauro Santini 2001 “Dietro i vetri” (6’) di Mauro Santini 2001 “Dal cortile" (4') di Mauro Santini 2000 “L’incontro” (52’) Film TV di Vittorio Moroni (Altamarea Film) 2000 “A mille ce n'è" (15') di Paola Bocci (Altamarea Film) 1997 “Tourbillon”(13’) di Matteo Pellegrini (Altamarea Film) 1997 “Girotondo” (5’) di Matteo Pellegrini (Altamarea Film) 1996 “5 aprile” (11’) di Matteo Pellegrini (Altamarea Film) Theater:

2010 “La terza vita” di V.Moroni regia di A.Pinheiro prod.50N 2008 “Tempesta” di Giovanni Ferri prod.ass.culturale Arte/altro 2008 “Il poema dei monti naviganti” con Roberta Biagiarelli, regia. A.Marinuzzi prod. Babelia,CSS Friuli Venezia Giulia, Regione Piemonte 2008 “Il cattivo ladrone” di e con Leonardo Manera prod. Festival Crucifixus 2004 "Coèfore" di Eschilo regia di M.Conti con Anna Maria Guarnieri prod.Teatro Stabile Marche/Biennale di Venezia/Orestiadi Gibellina 2003 “Il Borghese Gentiluomo” di Molière regia di Giampiero Solari con Giorgio Panariello prod. Teatro Stabile Marche - Teatro Nuovo Milano 2002 “Viaggio nelle muse” da Shakespeare regia di Paola Galassi prod. Teatro Stabile Marche 2002 “Aspetto e spero” di Leonardo Manera regia P. Galassi prod. Zelig/Bananas 2002 “L’usignolo, non l’allodola” di J.Johnston regia di P.Galassi prod. Teatro Stabile Marche 2002 “Gusci” da Kafka regia Francesco Calcagnini prod. Accademia Belle Arti - Urbino 2002 “Pantagruele” regia Sante Maurizi prod. La Botte e il Cilindro - Sassari 2001 “Il pasto dell’orco” regia di Fabrizio Bartolucci prod. Teatro Stabile in Rete - TSR 2001 “Dialogo della vecchia gioventù” di G. D’Elia regia. F.Calcagnini - Accademia Belle Arti - Urbino 2000 “Crimini esemplari” di Max Aub regia F.Calcagnini prod. Broz Ensemble / Accademia Belle Arti - Urbino 1996 “A dispetto dei santi” regia di F.Calcagnini prod. Accademia Belle Arti - Urbino 1995 “Esercizi spirituali in luogo pubblico” (prod. Incertimomenti) 1994 “Le città invisibili” da Italo Calvino regia F.Calcagnini/S.Maurizi prod. La Botte e il Cilindro - Sassari 1993 “Orazero” (prod. Incertimomenti) Opera, Orchestral and Chamber Music:

2010 “Bolero 2.0” per orchestra - commissione Filarmonica Marchigiana 2006 “Il parlatore eterno”, opera lirica; prima es. 28 Giugno 2006 Rassegna Lirica Torelliana – Teatro della Fortuna - FANO 2006 “LUZ” per orchestra; prima es. 20 Aprile 2006 Fil. Marchigiana,dir.M.Mariotti 2006 “Die Wolf-Gangsters” for young criminals orchestra – comm.Musicamorfosi 2005 “Il Colombre” per orchestra scolastica – prima es. Teatro Smeraldo Milano, 2003 “A Passo di Gatto “ per Banda prima esecuzione: Cartoceto 9 Agosto 2003 1998 “Isabella“di Azio Corghi Opera – collaborazione e arrangiamento “sezioni Rock” 1998 “The Masterpie®ce” per flauto rinascimentale e quartetto d’archi: prima esecuzione: Boston - New England Conservatory 24 Settembre 1998 1994 “Am I or not a serious composer?” per due flauti prima es. 17 Maggio 1994 -Auditorium “La Vela” – Urbino 1993 “Acqui” per pianoforte e 14 strumenti ad acqua prima es. 14 Luglio 1993 Festival Ville e Castella - Frantoio del Trionfo - Saltara

Animation films:

2005 “Sigla 62° Mostra del Cinema di Venezia” di Francesca Ghermandi prod. La Biennale di Venezia 2004 “Unicri” spot sociale ONU di Gianluigi Toccafondo prod.Lanterna Magica 2003 “Cafè l’amour” (10’) di Giorgio Valentini prod. Motus Film 1999-2001 ”Sigla Mostra del Cinema di Venezia” di Gianluigi Toccafondo /Biennale Venezia 1999 “Pinocchio” (6’) di Gianluigi Toccafondo (prod. Toccafondo/La Sept Arte) 1999 “Sipario Ducale” (10’) di Gianluigi Toccafondo e Massimo Salvucci 1998 “La Sagra” (2’30) di Roberto Catani 1998 “Errante Erotico Eretico” (1’) di Stefano Franceschetti e Cristiano Carloni 1996 “Bambini e TV” (30’’) di Gianluigi Toccafondo (prod. Mixfilm) 1996 “Prague International Marathon” (30’’) di G. Toccafondo (Mixfilm) 1996 “On the skin” (50’’) di Mauro Caramanica (prod. Bruno Bozzetto Film) 1996 “Majestic Presence” (50’) di Letizia Geminiani 1995 “Vertigine” (5’45’) di Mauro Caramanica 1994 “La boxe” (27’’) di Gianluigi Toccafondo

Advertising Music:

2004 "Toyota Corolla Verso" prod. Cineteam Roma 2003 “Dixan” agenzia DDB - Milano 2002 "Ferrero Looney Tunes" ag. Pubbliregia 2002 "Parmalat Joy" ag. McCann-Erickson 2002 "Ferrero Rocher" prod. Mercurio Cinematografica 2002 "Libri Repubblica" ag. Lowe Lintas Pirella Gottsche 2001 "Fiat Punto" con Flavio Ibba 2001 "Tele2" ag. Ogilvy 2001 “Microsoft Office XP" prod. McCann- Erickson 2001 “AcmeFilmworks Showreel” (Los Angeles - California) 2000 “Conad" Campagna Natalizia Supermercati 1999 “Stream” Canale Viaggi 2 serie di spot regia G.Toccafondo 1998 “B.P.M” di Matteo Pellegrini (Altamarea Film) 1997 “New Penny” (Max Mara) ag. Boxallaseconda 1997 “Stefanel“30’’ Campagna Stefanel ag. Boxallaseconda BIO GIULIANO DEL SORBO

1961 Born in Aylesbury (Great Britain) 1971 He moves to Italy 1986-‘89 Travel to South America (Argentina, Peru and Bolivia). 1991 He creates the Human Wave Live Exhibition, an action painting, realized in collaboration with artists as musicians, actors, dancers 1994-97 He collaborates with Studio d’Ars in Milan. Collective and personal exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Paris, Lion, Bologna, Venice, Treviso, Rome, Trento, Lecce, Milan. 1997-‘01 He moves to Ireland. Exhibitions in Dublin, Ennis, Galway, Linscannor and Mountshannon. 2001 Back in Italy. He opens a new studio in Milan 2003 He moves and opens a studio in Pesaro. 2003-‘06 Exhibitions and live performances in several italian cities (Milan, Cagli, Pesaro). 2007-‘09 Personal exhibition in Fano (Rocca Malatestiana). He creates the Pittura Estrema (Extreme Painting) Project and he performs in Pesaro (Rocca Costanza and Piazza del Popolo, 2007); in Gradara (Rocca, 2008), in Rome (Futuroma. Cent’anni di Futurismo, Piazza Colonna, 2009) 2010 Live performance Action Music Action Painting with the pianist and composer Mario Mariani (Pesaro, Teatro Rossini) www.giulianodelsorbo.it www.pittura-estrema.com