All images are © Luigia Martelloni. No reproduction without express written consent.

PRESENCE OF ABSENCE

‘PRESENCE OF ABSENCE’

With Video Installation -”SOUNDS OF INNOCENCE”

The video installation Sounds of Innocence is part of a solo show “Presence of Absence” opened in Los Angeles in Dec 11 2001. It was conceived in the wake of the terrorist attack in America.  It was composed of 5 mosquito net tents, inside of each is an audio cassette player which plays music from one of each of the 5 major world’s religions: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism. The viewer sits on one of the rugs inside the tent, listens to one of the music choices and watches the video “Sounds of Innocence”, that is projected on the wall in front. The video shows children singing and playing freely a game of girotondo (ring around the roses). The all-embracing white of the tents is the key of the work, and enhances the meditative intensity of the narrative. The music calls upon the viewer to meditate and listen openly to both voices of the children and songs of other cultures and what they might offer to one’s own sense of the world.