Yuval Avital Explained

Yuval Avital
Birth Date:1977
Landscape:yes
Birth Place:Jerusalem, Israel
Citizenship:Israeli, Italian
Occupation:multimedia artist, painter, composer, guitarist
Known For:large-scale installations, immersive performances, icon-sonic operas
Notable Works:"Fuga Perpetua", "Alma Mater", "Lessico Animale. Mysterion"

Yuval Avital (born 1977) is a multimedia artist, composer, and guitarist based in Milan, Italy.[1]

His large-scale installations and immersive performances have been presented in prominent museums,[2] biennials,[3] opera houses[4] and cultural institutions worldwide. Avital’s multidisciplinary practice spans sound, visual art, performance, video-art and theater, often in collaboration with scientific institute such as NASA,[5] ethnographic archives,[6] master craftsmen,[7] traditional performers and entire entire urban communities.[8] In 2016 his icon-sonic opera Fuga Perpetua received the sponsorship of the UNHCR,[9] underscoring his commitment to socially and culturally significant themes.

Biography

Yuval Avital was born in 1977 in Jerusalem, Israel. Avital develops his works in a variety of spaces, including public venues, industrial archaeological sites, theatres and museums, challenging the traditional crystallized categories that separate the arts.

His wide-ranging career includes the realization of monographic exhibitions, massive sonic works, sound and video installations of vast dimensions, collective performances involving sound masses in the creation of contemporary rituals, icon-sonic operas and artworks, complex multimedia frameworks, technological projects with the participation of scientists and usage of artificial intelligence, and compositions for soloists, choirs, orchestras and ensembles involving, sometimes, traditional masters of ancient cultures, dancers, performers and non-musicians.[10]

Art

Yuval Avital's work spans a vast array of mediums, showcasing his commitment to merging diverse art forms into unified, immersive experiences. Known for his large-scale installations, groundbreaking performances, and innovative musical compositions, Avital's works often explore themes of identity, memory, nature, and cultural dialogue. His artistic vision is marked by an interdisciplinary approach that integrates sound, visual art and performance, creating multifaceted narratives that resonate across cultural and historical contexts.

His artworks, featured in museum and private collections, have been exhibited in 23 solo and 12 group shows at renowned museums, foundations, and art events, including the MANIFESTA Biennial, the Gwangju Biennale in Korea, the Ostrale Biennale in Dresden, the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, LOOP Festival in Barcelona, Palais de Tokyo, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, the La Fabbrica del Cioccolato Foundation in Switzerland, the Marino Marini Museum in Florence, the National Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan, Teatro Regio in Parma, Chiostri di San Pietro in Reggio Emilia, and the Biscozzi | Rimbaud Foundation in Lecce.

HUMAN SIGNS, is a Global participatory online dance and voice artwork, conceived in time of COVID-19, with the participation of over 218 artists from over 50 countries presented digitally in MANIFESTA 13 Marseille as a part of Real Utopias exhibition and as a physical exhibition on the occasion of LOOP Festival in Barcelona.

Monographic exhibitions

Installations and permanent sculptures

Performance

Large-scale projects

Music

His compositions and stage works includes 6 chamber Operas (coined by the artist as Icon-SonicOperas), large scale works involving tens and sometimes hundreds of performers (coin by the artists as Massive Sonic Works) quartets, orchestral works and chamber music, often with a strong multimedia components. These works have been presented at opera houses, venues, and festivals, including the Parma Opera House Teatro Regio, Teatro Due Parma, Modena Freni-Pavarotti Opera House, Teatro Valli Reggio Emilia, Teatro Comunale di Como, Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Centre Pompidou Paris, National Conservatory of China, Tel Aviv Museum, Palazzo Reale Milan, Warsaw Autumn Festival, London Design Festival, Brighton Festival, MiTo SettembreMusica Festival, RomaEuropa Festival, and Matera European Capital of Culture, performed by leading ensembles and soloists such as PMCE Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble, Tempo Reale Ensemble, Meitar Ensemble, Auditivvokal Dresden,  Quartetto Lyskamm, Nicholas Isherwood, Monica Benvenuti, Silvia Pepe, Paolo De Gaspari, Maria Grazia Bellocchio, Maurizio Ben Omar, Dirk Hirthe, Eros Sabbatani, Seiko Tanaka, Michele Selva, Maurizio Barbetti, Gianpaolo Antongirolami, Sergio Scappini, and Giovanni Cospito, conducted by Tonino Battista, José Luis Gomez–Rios, Sandro Gori and  Olaf Katzer to name some.[18]

Different works of Avital are dedicated to humanitarian issues such as his Opera Fuga Perpetua (2016) whose protagonists are refugees, which is endorsed by United Nations UNHCR; and his Opera Giobbe [Job, 2018 ] (איוב), commissioned by the Italian Government and the Italian the chairmanship of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) in occasion of the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the racial laws, In which he connected the holocaust to the genocides which followed afterwards till today.

In his compositions Avital often includes important carriers of non-western traditions (such as Samaritans, gong and bamboo ensembles of South-East Asia, nomads of Kazakhstan and many others), as well as vocal communities of non-musicians (coined by the artists as ‘Crowd Music’), collaborations with scientists from institutes such as NASA, ESA, INGV and with ethnographic and ethnomusicological archives.

Since 2019 Yuval Avital his musical and artistic practices often unite.

Massive Sonic Works

Icon-Sonic Works

Icon-Sonic Operas

Icon-Sonic Quartet

Icon-Sonic Orchestras

Icon-Sonic Chambers

Chamber music

Compositions for indigenous ensembles

Works for indigenous ensembles involve contemporary music and ancient traditions, they are a big part of Avital’s creations and researches. These projects seek a dialogue between cultures that seem distant in the common perception and the enhancement of unknown traditions. They enrich the contemporary musical language by presenting exciting sonorities, diverse esthetics, new instruments and vocal styles. Hence, contemporary works with ancient traditions or indigenous ensembles bring with them a meaningful value from a social, ethical, cultural and musical point of view.

Electro-acoustic composition

Music for Dance/Theater

Guitar

Graduated in the Jerusalem music Academy and later a part of Angelo Gilardino soloists class, under the tutorship of M° Angelo Gilardino & M° Luigi Biscaldi, Avital performed around the world for several years. After that he has focused on creating his own original compositions and on collaborations with masters and soloists of both creative and traditional music. Avital uses elements from the tradition of stringed instruments in the Middle East, Central Asia and Far East, combined with extended techniques for classical guitar.

Music collaborations

Yuval Avital’s work is focused on the research of intercultural relations, based on dialogue as a way to show hidden symmetries and complementarity inherent in the culture. Avital’s operas try to unite, through an ideal “bridge”, non-western musical cultures, traditional artists and custodians of ancient cultures around the world. His research of new forms of musical expressions through dialogue gave birth, in 2006, to Trialogo Festival,[39] where masters of ancient traditions, dance, jazz, classical and electric music and many other discipline meet to create a new opera or a common project.

In 2012, the Yuval & Wisam Duo, featuring Yuval Avital on guitar and live electronics and Wisam Gibran on oud and violin, created a profound intercultural dialogue. Combining Avital’s avant-garde techniques with Gibran’s mastery of Middle Eastern traditions, their partnership bridged cultures into a unified sonic tapestry.

References

  1. Web site: Yuval Avital - interview - Art Theorema #3 . 2024-11-22 . Fondazione Imago Mundi . en-GB.
  2. Web site: 2023-02-23 . Lessico Animale, Mysterion: la mostra nei sotterranei delle Terme di Caracalla . 2024-11-22 . Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali e per il Turismo . it.
  3. Web site: Internazionale . Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione . Italian Pavillion – 14th Gwangju Biennale 2023 . 2024-11-22 . iicseoul.esteri.it . it-IT.
  4. Web site: Mostrario. Parte I di Yuval Avital . 2024-11-22 . Teatro Regio di Parma . it-IT.
  5. Web site: Redazione . 2012-09-13 . Yuval Avital a Bergamo Scienza 2012 . 2024-11-22 . ArtsLife . it-IT.
  6. Web site: Samaritans . 2024-11-22 . Leav - AudioVisual Ethnography Lab . en-US.
  7. Web site: 2019-10-01 . Nephilìm. Una moltitudine di maschere sonore, di Yuval Avital . 2024-11-22 . Museo Marino Marini . en-US.
  8. Web site: Presentato "Bosco di Lecce" di Yuval Avital, progetto di arte relazionale che mette in dialogo l’artista e la città . 2024-11-22 . www.comune.lecce.it . it.
  9. Web site: Pacefuturo about Fuga Perpetua and UNHCR.
  10. Book: C., Cupchik, Gerald. The aesthetics of emotion : up the down staircase of the mind-body. 9781107024458. Cambridge, United Kingdom. 953582218. 2016-07-28.
  11. Web site: Il Canto dello Zooforo . 2024-11-25 . www.lacasadellamusica.it . it.
  12. News: 2017-06-19 . Open Fence - Interni Magazine . 2017-09-04 . Interni Magazine . it-IT.
  13. News: Italia . Rolling Stone . 'Open Fence', dodici tonnellate di suono . 2017-09-04 . Rolling Stone Italia . it-IT.
  14. http://www.espoarte.net/arte/alma-mater-di-yuval-avital-il-respiro-della-grande-madre/ Espoarte Magazine - "Il Respiro della Grande Madre"
  15. http://www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/alma-mater-multimedia-total-artwork-milan/ INEXHIBIT - ALMA MATER
  16. Web site: Real Utopias – Human Signs – Manifesta 13 Marseille . 2024-11-27 . en-US.
  17. Web site: 2022-11-23 . Yuval Avital “Mostrario” at Reggio Parma Festival — Mousse Magazine and Publishing . 2024-11-27 . www.moussemagazine.it . en-US.
  18. Web site: Yuval Avital, biografia e mostre . 2024-11-27 . Itinerarinellarte.it . it.
  19. Web site: Paolo . Edizione 2019 . 2024-11-25 . Open Sound Festival . it-IT.
  20. News: Requiem Monumentale ViviMilano . ViviMilano . ViviMilano . 2017-09-04 . it-IT.
  21. http://www.francemusique.fr/emission/des-aventures-sonores/2014-2015/yuval-avital-02-24-2015-22-30 France Musique about REKA
  22. http://www.amadeusonline.net/news/2014/yuval-avital-cerca-una-folla-di-voci Amadeus about Reka
  23. Web site: Fondazione Amadeus .
  24. http://www.abitare.it/en/design-en/2012/01/25/the-yuval-avitals-45-tubas/ The Yuval Avital’s 45 tubas - Abitare
  25. Web site: 2018-05-30 . Yuval Avital - Giobbe Artribune . 2024-11-25 . it-IT.
  26. http://www.francemusique.fr/emission/des-aventures-sonores/2014-2015/yuval-avital-02-24-2015-22-30 THE METROPOLIST - FUGA PERPETUA
  27. http://popoli-in-fuga.blogautore.repubblica.it/2016/03/13/rifugiati-il-potere-liberatorio-dellarte-che-restituisce-dignita/ "L'Arte che restituisce dignità" - Repubblica
  28. Web site: Fuga Perpetua at Brighton Festival .
  29. http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/brighton-festival-exploring-new-directions-theatre-visual-arts/ Brighton & Hove Independent - Fuga Perpetua
  30. http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/noise-for-syd-opera-totale-per-syd-barrett/7180/ La Repubblica XL
  31. http://www.ilcorrieremusicale.it/2013/11/12/noise-for-syd/ Il Corriere Musicale - Noise for Syd
  32. Web site: 2011-07-13 . Cycles Ombre, Sogni E Paesaggi Horror Vacui Leilit 2011 Romaeuropa . 2024-11-27 . it-IT.
  33. Web site: Samaritans . 2024-11-27 . Leav - AudioVisual Ethnography Lab . en-US.
  34. Web site: 2008-10-16 . Kolot, in scena un’opera "icono sonora" affacciata sul mondo . 2024-11-27 . ilGiornale.it . it.
  35. Web site: About Birds - Teatro Comunale Modena Pavarotti-Freni . 2024-11-25 . it-IT.
  36. http://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/16_maggio_14/a-proposito-cultura-ebraica-jewish-the-city150-1eb59bec-1916-11e6-a60e-5fac25fd8ba7.shtml Corriere della Sera
  37. http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/cultura/2013-01-10/segnali-aldila-164226.shtml?uuid=AbULE2IH IL SOLE 24 ORE about OTOT
  38. http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2011/03/06/a-milano-va-in-scena-una-notte-in-tunisiagrande-attesa-per-le-musiche-di-avital/95732/ Una Notte in Tunisia - Il Fatto Quotidiano
  39. https://www.behance.net/gallery/948856/Trialogo-Festival Trialogo Festival on Behance

Bibliography

External links