On the occasion of Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner's solo exhibition, MACRO presents a live performance by the British composer and sound artist, whose practice has explored the intersections of sound, space, and image for more than three decades. Conceived as a live activation of the sound installation 52 Spaces, presented in the museum's Audio Hall, the performance expands the artist's ongoing investigation into sound, memory, and the moving image.
52 Spaces uses sounds of the city of Rome and elements of Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse (1962) to create the soundtrack of an image of a city suspended in time, anonymous and surreal. The result is a distilled narrative of seductive conversation, musical fragments, and city soundscapes.
During the performance, Scanner accompanies the projection of 52 Spaces live, developing the work's sonic dimension in real time. Selecting a series of fifty-two framed images from the closing moments of the film, slowed down into a kind of mnemonic slideshow and accompanied by audio culled from the movie, processed with twinkling elements from the soundtrack's original melody, Scanner conveys a complex and mysterious chronicle, offering a space for contemplation and reflection as the soundtrack weaves an imaginary narrative.
L'Eclisse charts the beginning of the end, evoking a sense of loss and suggesting that modern industrial society can obliterate the emotions between people. Essentially about the relationship between a man and a woman, with the emptiness of their affections mirrored in the iconic metropolis, Antonioni's classic film is reflected back to the audience through harmonics, hushed voices, and sound effects. Through this performance, Scanner reconstructs an understanding of the characters, how they commune with their physical environment, and how sound is crucial to our understanding of their story. Capturing, manipulating, and redirecting these moments back into the public consciousness, 52 Spacesestablishes an archaeology of personal experiences and missed connections, assembling a momentarily forgotten past within our digital future.
Free admission until capacity is reached.
The event will take place the the museum’s Cinema Hall.
ROBIN RIMBAUD-SCANNER is a pioneering British composer and artist celebrated for transforming the hidden frequencies of everyday life into music. Emerging in the early 1990s, Scanner became renowned for his innovative use of intercepted mobile phone conversations and found sounds, weaving them into haunting electronic compositions that explore surveillance, identity, and memory. His prolific output spans albums, sound installations, dance, film, and public art, collaborating with artists from Bryan Ferry to Merce Cunningham, Laurie Anderson and Steve McQueen. Continually redefining the relationship between sound and space, Rimbaud’s work invites listeners to tune into the unseen rhythms of the modern world.