SUPERIMPOSITION

By Polisonum

SUPERIMPOSITION is an artistic project by Polisonum that investigates the theme of listening and sonic control. The project is realised through the encounter of multiple disciplinary fields including sound, data analysis, fashion, and visual arts.

SUPERIMPOSITION explores the concept of earworms - those sonic agents that coercively graft themselves onto the brain until they become parasites and provoke mechanisms of cognitive control. Already known at the end of the 19th century, the phenomena were later defined as brainworms by Oliver Sacks. Sound worms are linked to mass culture such as pop music, advertisements, video games and TV theme songs. They also inhabit airports, bars, shops, gyms and shopping centres, and are characterised by sequences of redundant melodies that are difficult to escape. Recognising these mechanisms is complex, due to a weak, if not absent, general education in listening.

Based on this research, SUPERIMPOSITION launched a data analysis of more than 10,000 music tracks featured in the popular international charts from 2000 to 2022. This analysis - which is based on the quantity and repetitiveness of the music – has been automated with a specially developed software. Algorithms and data analysis techniques were used to select the most characteristic lyrics. Their mathematically generated superimposition composes the work SUPERIMPOSITION - a composition in which no melody is recognisable. The work is presented through a performative act conceived as a fashion show that recalls ancient rituals, in which the performer and the audience become a single body on stage. On the catwalk, the garments, which look like sculptural dresses made of sound-absorbing fabrics - textile materials capable of refracting and absorbing sound pressure - will be presented.

The performative act will be followed by an exhibition at Cercle Cité, with the installation of the video work, the sound work and some stage and research elements.

Polisonum (Filippo Lilli, Donato Loforese) is a collective that uses sound as an investigative method and tool to explore processes and metamorphoses related to the present time. They create sound installations and performances in dialogue with visual language. Thanks to their hybrid identity, which brings together multiple disciplines, they build projects that rely on a dense practice of study and analysis with the aim of experiencing active listening and visualisation.

SUPERIMPOSITION is supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (2023) and will be presented at *Alte Fabrik (Rapperswil, CH), Ars Electronica (Linz, AT), Careof (Milan, IT), Haus der Kunst (Munich,DE), Iklectik (London, UK), Politecnico di Torino (Turin, IT), OTO SOUND MUSEUM (Zurich, CH).

SUPERIMPOSITION will enter the collection of MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna Bologna.

Exhibition opening

Friday 3 May at 18:00

Free entrance and without registration

Free guided tour every Saturday 

04.05 at 15:00 (FR)

11.05 at 15:00 (EN)

18.05 at 15:00 (LU/DE)

25.05 at 15:00 (FR)

01.06 at 15:00 (EN)

22.06 at 15:00 (FR)

29.06 at 15:00 (EN)

Free entrance and without registration

Curatorial visit 

15.06 at 15:00 (LU/DE)

Free entrance and without registration

Organisation: Cercle Cité with the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (2023), and the Italian Embassy in Luxembourg

Artists: Polisonum

Location: Small room of the Ratskeller exhibition space

Exceptional closure of the exhibition space: From 07/06/2024 to 10/06/2024

Co-curators: Francesca Ceccherini and Anastasia Chaguidouline

Data Curator: Elisa Bernardoni

Fashion Design: MARIOS Collective

Research of material and phono-resistance: Marco Carlo Masoero, Louena Shtrepi, Politecnico di Torino, DENERG

Scientific support: Francesco Nucci, Neuroscientist