19 May 2017

The Institute of Things to Come - Alex Cecchetti

OPENING: June 22, 2017

Alex Cecchetti – CETACEANS

Curated by Ludovica Carbotta & Valerio Del Baglivo


For the third chapter of The Institute, artist Alex Cecchetti exhibits Cetaceans a polyphonic concerto for a choir, a glass harmonica and a waterphone, exploring dreams, dizziness, time lapses and lucid dreams, as states in which a different form of interaction is produced.

Speculating on future ways of communication without the use of spoken language, Cetaceans is an immersive installation soliciting participants senses with the use of multiple sound sources. The music partition is an hybrid composition in which music notation, poems and patterns of whale voices have been arranged together and merged. A choir of singers reproduces the sound of whales and mixes these non-human voices with the music and Alex Cecchetti's poems and reflexions. Immersed into an atmosphere producing a feeling of disembodiment, eventually, spectators fall asleep, and the concert is experienced only in their dreams.

In times of sleep-deprivation where gaming and social-media dependency, workaholic syndromes and nomophobia influence our everyday capacities of interrelations, Cecchetti has long researched non-human and unconventional forms of communication based on music and dreams. What happens if in the future humans will communicate only by using abstract sounds? And what if we will be operating only in a constant dream state? Alex Cecchetti invites the audience to think about future forms of communication models, by enjoying an experience that can only be appreciated when falling asleep.

Along with the exhibition, the artist will conduct a workshop titled THE FUTURE IS A SECRET SOCIETY together with artist Lina Lapalyte. Starting from the assumption that a secret society has moved away from the use of spoken language for communication purposes, the participants will be asked to identify themselves with this future condition, experimenting three different ways of abstract interrelation: poetry, music and tarot. The city of Turin will be functioning as the test bed to experiment these new ways of communication into the real world.

The educational program of The Institute of Things to Come is open to 12 international students (artists, curators, researchers, writers, etc.), selected through an open call. Three merit-based scholarships will be awarded and cover fees and accommodation costs. Submission deadline for application is 1st of June 2017. For full details on workshop program and application procedures visit theinstituteofthingstocome.com. Please follow the link to start an electronic application: theinstituteofthingstocome.com/the-school/