INVERNOMUTOBlack Med, Chapters IV & VI

Image credits: Renato Cruz Santos / GMP

Sismógrafo, in collaboration with Passos Manuel and Galeria Municipal do Porto, presents a triple program around several aspects of the work of the Italian duo Invernomuto. During three days, two films will be screened at Passos Manuel Cinema, an exhibition will be open at Sismógrafo, and a commented concert will happen at the Acoustic Shell in the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal.

Black Med is a platform on which the artists have worked since 2018. It is a project of DJ set sessions in which texts and references dialogue with sound pieces, grouped into themes such as migration, periphery, interspecies, or alternatives to technology. Black Med, Chapter IV features a diversion through the Persian Gulf, and Black Med, Chapter VI is based on David Abulafia’s essay “Mediterraneans.” Both chapters will be presented in the Acoustic Shell of the Crystal Palace Gardens, a session integrated in the program Galeria Energia – Encounters between art, music, nature and science, by Galeria Municipal do Porto.

Invernomuto is the name of the artistic personality created in 2003 by Simone Bertuzzi (Piacenza, 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (Piacenza 1982). They work and live in Milan. Invernomuto is the author of a series of research projects structured in time and space, from which cycles of interconnected works derive. On a common theoretical basis, Invernomuto tends to think in an open and rhizomatic manner, developing different outputs that take the form of moving images, sounds, performative actions and publishing projects, within the framework of a practice defined by the use – as diffuse as it is precise – of different media. Reality is observed according to documentaristic principles and interests, but for the purpose of creating an imaginative and almost abstract representation, which offers wide margins for reflection and critical interrogation.

In particular, Invernomuto investigates subcultural universes, moving through different practices, in which the vernacular language is one way of approaching and appreciating oral cultures and contemporary mythologies, observed with a gaze that aspires to be cross-fertilised and regenerated by it. The declared inauthenticity of some of the materials used plays a fundamental role in this process, which underlines not only the real but also the fictitious and distorted nature of the realities that Invernomuto explores. Both artists also develop individual lines of research, with the musical projects Palm Wine and STILL.

The year 2021 includes participation in the Liverpool Biennial, 58th October Salon-Belgrade Biennial and Pompeii Commitment, Pompeii. Solo exhibitions include The Green Parrot, Barcelona (2021); Auto Italia, London (2020); Galleria Nazionale, Rome (2019); NN Contemporary Art, Northampton (2019); Pinksummer, Genoa (2019); Artspeak, Vancouver (2015); Marsèlleria, Milan and the ar/ge kunst, Bolzano (both 2014). Their work has also been exhibited at the 58th Venice Biennale; Tate, London; Manifesta 12, Palermo; Villa Medici, Rome; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Nuit Blanche 2017; Paris, Museion, Bolzano; Kunstverein München, Munich; Bozar, Brussels; FAR°, Nyon; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Bétonsalon, Paris; Italian Cultural Institute. Addis Ababa; American Academy in Rome; PAC, Milan; Vleeshal, Middelburg; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Hangar Bicocca, Milan; Netmage 07/09, Bologna; Premio Furla, Bologna; No Fun Fest 2009, New York; Biennale Architettura 11, Venice.