Vigil by Caterina Barbieri and Ruben Spini (EN)

The exhibition Future Shock, at 180 Studios in London, has recently closed. Future Shock was a journey through fourteen video, multimedia or sonic installations (or all of them together). 180 Studios brutalist space is perfect for this kind of events: with its bare walls, its pipes and the handwritings marking the sections of the circuits, we are invited to take off our personal superstructures and to let ourselves being involved by these immersive artworks.

The installations were of variable quality: some of them did not communicate me that much, some of them were beautiful to the sight but conceptually not particularly original; a bunch of them was really remarkable and, among them, there is one that moved me: it is Vigil, by Caterina Barbieri and Ruben Spini.

Caterina Barbieri is a musician and composer. Her music is electronic, minimalistic and introspective. Vigil is her first multimedia installation, made in collaboration with Ruben Spini who usually designs the visual aspects of her performances.

On the background there is an image, a sort of abstract minimalistic landscape in vivid colours, and there is a soundscape, Broken Melody, from the musician’s latest album, Spirit Exit. In between, in the middle of the scene, hanging on the ceiling, there is a block of ice with the imprint of a hand. The message of absence and isolation is clear and strong and it is ideally linked to the lockdown period, when Broken Melody was written.

Now, it is very common to find material elements in contemporary art installations. But the genius of Vigil is that ice is a material that changes, and its transformation happens in front of us, at a speed that changes depending on the surrounding temperature. The drops falling on the floor create a puddle in a random shape that reflects the image of the projection. You can choose on which side of the ice block, which works as a portal, you want to stand, and watch the image as it is, with no filters. Or you can observe how the projection changes while the ice becomes thinner or through the imprint of the hand. Or you can watch the reflex on the puddle, with the little waves created by the drops constantly falling down. In any case, you will be surrounded by an ethereal and hypnotic music.

In conclusion, the best installation at Future Shock was a musician’s one. A musician whom I cannot wait to see live in concert at the Barbican Centre in October.