Fondazione Prada with Threes Productions presents a new musical project that further expands its research in contemporary and experimental music. Italian musician and sound designer Marta De Pascalis will present Sky Flesh, a live performance in the Church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa in Milan, whose spaces host the light installation by American artist Dan Flavin, created by Fondazione Prada in 1997. The performance, presented by Threes Productions and Fondazione Prada, will take place on 16 May 2024 at 8.30 pm.
The church’s interior, designed by Giovanni Muzio in 1932, becomes the stage for a unique creative dialogue between Marta De Pascalis’ music and the site-specific intervention Untitled (1997) by Dan Flavin (United States, 1933 – 1996). Fondazione Prada produced Flavin’s work in collaboration with the Dia Center for the Arts in New York and Dan Flavin Estate on the occasion of his first Italian solo exhibition organized in Milan by Fondazione Prada, which has been supervising and supporting the conservation of the work ever since.
Marta De Pascalis employs analog synthesis and loop machines for her music and weaves improvisations into constant, repetitive patterns. The result is a collage of dense, dynamic, and melodic fragments that combine with hypnotic bass lines and synth figures. Her music has transformed over the years into a mysterious and emotional sonic narrative, a testament to her unique talent. She has previously presented her work at various festivals and institutions, such as Berlin Atonal, Museum Reina Sofia, Venice Biennale, Berghain, Volksbühne, Café Oto and Mutek Festival. She has shared the stage with The Necks, Demdike Stare, William Basinski, Jerusalem in My Heart and collaborated with Carlos Casas.
In her career, Marta De Pascalis has produced four solo albums: Quitratue (2014), Anzar (2016), Sonus Ruinae (2020), and Sky Flesh (2023), released with Light-Years, the label of Italian composer Caterina Barbieri. Sky Flesh was composed using only the Yamaha CS-60 analog synth, similar to the CS-80 that Vangelis used to make the iconic soundtrack for Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1982). Sky Flesh is a vast sequence of evocative expressive suggestions resulting from Marta De Pascalis’ sensitive and almost handcrafted approach to electronic music.
This initiative marks the third collaboration between Fondazione Prada and Threes, which, since 2017, has organized a series of musical projects in the Church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa. The concerts have featured different forms of sound expression, including, tape loops by William Basinsiki (2017), the Church organ performance by Charlemagne Palestine (2018) and Ellen Arkbro (2021), Arvö Part’s performance of the iconic Tabula Rasa (2019) by multi-channel speakers Ascousmonium, Dies Irae, performed by Maria Horn (2022) and a choir of four female voices, and the sound experimentation by FUJI|||||||||||TA (2023).