SUPERIMPOSITION

Performance

Cercle Cité is pleased to invite the public to discover the work SUPERIMPOSITION by Filippo Lilli and Donato Loforese of the Italian collective Polisonum, through the performance at the heart of this multifaceted project. The performance has been specially conceived for the Cercle Cité, where it will be premiered in the Great Hall. The event is graciously supported by the Italian Embassy in Luxembourg.

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.

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.

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. The garments made of sound-absorbing fabrics, which look like sculptural dresses, will be presented in a fashion-show-like choreography. The five performers from Italy will interact with the audience and the historic space of the Cercle Cité, communicating with the public through an abstract and universal language of gesture and mime. In this choreography, they will also present clothing designed with the MARIOS fashion brand, made out of fabrics capable of refracting and absorbing sound pressure (identified with the technical-scientific support of the Politecnico di Torino). These armour suits are designed as empirical protections for the ear and the body.

The scenic and sound dramaturgy of the performance, which will be presented in the Great Hall of the historic Cercle Cité in Luxembourg, is also the subject of the video work realised through a multi-point direction. The performative act will be followed by a corresponding exhibition presenting the video work, as well as some costumes and research elements, which will open to the public on 4 May 2024.

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.

Organisation: Cercle Cité with the support of the Italian Embassy

Registration requested: inscription@cerclecite.lu

Artists: Polisonum

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