MANUMANU is an immersive work of contemporary art, created by Filippo Fabbri, artist, composer and maître de conference at the University of Paris-Saclay (France), between autumn 2019 and autumn 2021.

The work represents the synthesis of a pictorial-sounic creative performance by Giancarlo MOSCARA (painting) and Filippo FABBRI (sound-art) which took place between 14 and 15 July 2019 in Giancarlo MOSCARA's studio.

The performance is an impromptu experiment of pure artistic improvisation. The recording was performed with "simple" tools (smartphones, tablets, some cameras, microphones...) by Filippo FABBRI, who positioned the devices at different distances and angles, in order to obtain different points of view and various sound perspectives.

 

The immersive work consists of five simultaneous and synchronized video projections and a spatialized audio composition, which summarize about 3 hours of improvisation in 30 minutes. The creative act of the painter is proposed in five different panels where the gestures of the artist during the creative work are projected in synchrony but from different points of view, accompanied by the same sounds he produces and by the musical improvisation of the musician. The visitor can thus be totally immerged in the pictorial and sound creative process, in the gesture and energy of the two artists as they dialogue through their creation.

 

A dialogue without words, but much stronger and deeper than a simple verbal exchange. The complicity between image and sound is total, the counterpoint unfolds fluidly like a written score, in total aesthetic, formal and sensorial concordance.

This rare and surprising synesthetic harmony is made possible by the deep artistic and human bond between Giancarlo MOSCARA and Filippo FABBRI. Indeed, Filippo FABBRI considers Giancarlo MOSCARA as a master in the broadest sense of the term. Since the early years of training, Filippo has been fascinated by Giancarlo's art and teachings, he has observed, emulated, shared the dialogue and intellectual research to which Giancarlo has always made himself available with generosity, artistic and scientific curiosity, interest and fun. 

 

In MANUMANU, this decades-long dialogue takes visual and sound form in multiple simultaneous dimensions, which envelop the visitor and transport him into the world of creation and research that the two artists carry out hand by hand. A deep bond that is found in the superposition of images obtained from the semi-transparency of the panels, an echo of the quantum correlation of elementary systems.

 

MANUMANU is also an investigative tool. Gestures and strokes intertwine, grow magnified and reveal the beauty of Giancarlo MOSCARA's work and pictorial dynamics right down to the smallest details. For example, we can observe the particular position of the painter's hands while they paint; or the expression of his eyes: the attentive observer will notice that these elements are found in many of his paintings, to embody the close bond between the artist and his creation. MANUMANU re-projects this link onto the visitor, assimilating and absorbing it in the work in progress, involving him in an action that invites him to take part in the process and to intervene in the real and imaginary worlds.