(Gorizia, IT, 1979)

Michele Spanghero has exhibited and performed in different international contexts such as museums, galleries, clubs and festivals in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Turkey, Egypt and USA.

His research focuses on the acoustic art, declined in the form of music or sound art, and on visual art in the attempt to find a natural synthesis (non synaesthetic) between these two forms of expression. The methodological approach characterizes his work through a continuous survey of the limits of the media: through the study of music and theater, he has indeed acquired an oblique approach that, usually starting from the sound, becomes instinctively tangential to visual art.

His discs have been released for several labels such as Dedalus Records, headphonica, Palomar

Records, Gruenrekorder and MiraLoop.

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Ad lib. (2017)

sound sculpture

Automatic pulmonary ventilator, trolley, organ pipes, wood, organ ventilator

Organ dim.: 280x110x45cm Trolley dim.: 130x55x55cm Dur.: ad libitum

The sound sculpture Ad lib. (2017) combines a medical machine for automatic pulmonary ventilation with a few organ pipes that play a musical chord to the constant rhythm of the mechanical breath, creating an artificial organ that is metaphorically a mechanical requiem that sounds incessantly.

The title of the work Ad lib., an abbreviation of the Latin expression “ad libitum”, is a musical caption that gives the performer discretion of interpretation, allowing for instance to repeat “at will” certain bars of the score. The Latin expression “ad libitum” literally means “at the discretion”, “at will” and is generally used to express the freedom of a person to act according to their own judgment in a given context.

The sculpture aims to refer to the situation in which people, who suffer from critical health conditions, see their survival tied to a breathing machine and, therefore, to the discretion of those who are taking care of them.