Barbara Gabbrielli · 24 August 2022
Capturing dreams and transforming them into gazes, heartbeats, images and sounds. Not on a psychoanalyst’s couch but beside the Arno, aided by technology ranging from a simple smartphone to complex algorithms and artificial intelligence. Jacopo Baboni Schilingi has done just that: a composer, pupil of Luciano Berio, multidisciplinary artist based in Paris, and, over the past year, the protagonist of a long residency at MAD–Murate Art District, whose results will soon be seen.
On 8 September at 7 p.m., for just two hours, the Terzo Giardino will host the large sound installation Il Respiro dei sogni. Baboni Schilingi’s project, curated by MAD artistic director Valentina Gensini and Artegiro president Renata Summo O’Connell, began right here, in this green space between the river and Lungarno Serristori.
In May, the artist invited Florentines to donate their dreams anonymously. For three days, eighty people of all ages walked through the plant labyrinth, recording dream visions, unfulfilled wishes, utopias and personal and collective hopes on their smartphones. Baboni Schilingi collected these suggestions, had them interpreted by performer Cristina Abati and actor Riccardo Rombi—who respectively read the men’s and women’s dreams—and turned them into one large installation. After its brief appearance at the Terzo Giardino, it will be available on MAD’s website, www.murateartdistrict.it.
Until 15 October, the former Florentine prison will house the full Il Respiro dei sogni route: eighty audio tracks accompanied by videos and musical scores integrating the stories with participants’ breathing and heartbeats. These vital signs were measured using Argo, a special device whose complex algorithm transforms bodily functions into endlessly unfolding music and images. Baboni Schilingi calls it a dream crescendo, beginning at MAD’s entrance portico, continuing into the cells and culminating in the spacious Sala Banti.
What does Florence dream? With eyes open, that Fiorentina will win the championship. But also of a romantic stroll through Boboli, or a colourful city with loudspeakers broadcasting music. Some plan to move to the seaside; others, more altruistically, to improve the world. Some wish for Covid to end, others for world peace. Nighttime dreams open more complex, sometimes bizarre scenarios: a small dog can turn into a green apple, or someone may be eaten by nuns or make love to their father.
“I underwent psychoanalysis for twelve years and know very well how important dreams are,” Baboni Schilingi says. “The ability to dream unites us and lets us live profound, mysterious, frightening and imaginative experiences. By reworking this precious material, I have given voice to our unconscious.”
In the portico, whispers, evocative words and breathing introduce the journey into the mind. The first cell brings together twenty-four “personal projects”, recounted while close-ups of eyes appear on screen. In the second, images of the Terzo Giardino’s plants, foliage and grass flow across the video. Natural sounds mix with musical fragments: this is the cell where utopias and ideal visions take shape. The third and final cell contains nighttime dreams; artificial-intelligence software generates different images each time.
Finally, in Sala Banti visitors take centre stage: hand gestures interact with a sensor, helping create a video of sixty images per second generated in real time. Baboni Schilingi’s residency, part of Lumen–Progetto Riva, also involved the Institut français, Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts, the Luigi Cherubini Conservatoire and EMI–Ensemble de Musique Interactive.
“A project tailored to the city, which let me experience it in a new way and take personal stock,” concludes Schilingi. At fifty he returns to Florence, following his experience alongside Berio at Centro Tempo Reale, to compose his artistic manifesto founded on technology.
Other events: three concerts from today until the 31st
The Terzo Giardino and MAD host three concerts, beginning with Spiridione today at 6 p.m. in the park on Lungarno Serristori. Tomorrow at 6.15 p.m., Metodi per suonare, from Giuseppe Chiari’s work of the same name, takes place at Le Murate. On 31 August at 6 p.m., Enkidu returns to the Terzo Giardino. Admission is free.