The multifunctional cultural center Barrio’s transforms into an unpredictable soundscape. VANDALI comes to life: a large installation of interactive sound sculptures that invite the public to musical improvisation and space appropriation.
The sculptural instruments, born from the collaboration between the architects of Studiolatte and the music duo Babau, engage in a dialogue with the architecture of Barona. The sounds they produce blend with the rhythm of the neighborhood’s daily life and the sounds of the communities that inhabit it. The result is a sound improvisation project that echoes the concept of the city as a “stage for the everyday”.
This sonic architecture will first be activated by the Babau duo, and then – like a choir of multiple voices – by citizens, invited to experiment with the sculptures throughout the duration of the festival.
The title “VANDALI” metaphorically refers to the idea of vandalism in public spaces, where acts like poster pasting and graffiti become tools capable of breaking the silence in abandoned and underused places.
“VANDALI” proposes a hacking of the everyday, where sound becomes a creative tool for rebellion and a reimagining of the city.
BIO
Barrio’s is a social and cultural center, a hub for the Barona neighborhood and a promoter of educational and cultural initiatives to support its transformation. Since 1997, the center has been behind various activities, from youth education through theater, music, and art, to offering space for community-driven social and cultural initiatives. Their “parties in the square” have now become a tradition.
Founded by Matteo Andrenelli and Isabella Del Grandi, Studiolatte operates at the intersection of architecture and design, using collective and plural processes to transform both public and private spaces. Studiolatte is the creator of Bagno Diurno, a project to redevelop the decommissioned public building of the former Casa dell’Acqua in Milan, presented during Milan Design Week 2024. Since 2022, they have also been the creative directors at Slalom, a leading company in sustainable acoustics for architecture. The studio has exhibited its projects at Galleria Rossana Orlandi, Alcova Milano, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, M7 Museum Doha, FAR – Festival dell’Architettura Roma, Milan Design Week, Salone del Mobile, Stockholm Design Week, Orgatec, and collaborates with various public institutions, including the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Babau is the anthropic project of Artetetra founders Matteo Pennesi and Luigi Monteanni, blending their fascination with exoticism, world music 2.0, and field recordings with the compositional and improvisational techniques of computer music. Their latest album, All The Gurls Were At The Women’s Archo Ashinto, was recently released by Bamboo Shows, while previous works Stock Fantasy Zone and Flatland Explorations Vol. 2 were released by Discrepant. Selected as SHAPE+ artists in 2023, Pennesi and Monteanni have performed at various festivals in Italy and abroad: Fusion Festival, Club to Club, Terraforma, Nextones, Outernational Days, Camp Cosmic, and Saturnalia.