Demetrio Stratos, the exhibition reopens tomorrow in Ravenna

After the first opening from 14 to 22 December, the free entry exhibition “Up to the limits of the impossible – The vocal research of Demetrio Stratos 1970-1979” reopens tomorrow 7 January and until 31 January.

Second movement”, set up at Palazzo Malagola in Ravenna by the International Center for Vocal and Sound Research “Malagola” and curated by Ermanna Montanari and Enrico Pitozzi, and which has as associate curators Marco Sciotto and Dario Taraborrelli, which presents a selection of materials from Demetrio Stratos Archive, acquired at the end of 2022 by the Municipality of Ravenna, with co-financing by the Emilia-Romagna Region, directly from the Stratos widow Daniela Ronconi Demetriou and who found the location for her care and enjoyment right in Malagola (here is the news of the opening with a photo gallery).

“Up to the limits of the impossible” is a “second movement”, in fact it arrives a year after “Amorevole progression, amorevole regrerendo”, an initial exhibition of the very first materials subjected to a work of reordering, cataloging and digitization (this last edited by the Classense Library Institution of Ravenna). And from that moment the archive became available for public use.

If the “first movement” presented a nucleus of materials regarding Demetrio Stratos and his relationship with other artists, John Cage above all, the spirit of this “second movement” is the opening of Stratos’ vocal research to the extra-European dimension, to the music from the world and their relationship with diplophony and harmonic singing, which in “Up to the limits of the impossible” will find its culmination in one of the rooms of Palazzo Malagola specifically dedicated to immersive listening.

The documentation belonging to the archive – including audiovisual materials of performances, lessons and concerts, preparatory notes linked to his artistic production, prints by photographers who have immortalized his work over the years, musical instruments, objects, memorabilia, items of clothing, books, vinyl records, posters relating both to his work as a soloist and to his work with I Ribelli and with Area, copies of degree theses, studies and essays dedicated to his research, the press review collected over the decades, some of which were put on display in 2023 – unpublished documents on Stratos’ performances are added for this “second movement”, starting from those that summon Antonin Artaud and those relating to “

The thousand and one”I work in collaboration with Nanni Balestrini and the choreographer Valeria Magli. And then more related materials his participation in the 1978 project/happening “The trainby John Cage”and his contribution as the author of the music Satyricon directed by Gabriele Salvatores in the ’78-79 season of the Teatro dell’Elfo.

There are 7 different environments in which the exhibition is divided: a room dedicated to posters that span the history of Area and solo Stratos, a cinema room with long-lasting audiovisual materials, a room dedicated to paper and photographic materials with fragments of materials audiovisual products to be enjoyed on a “vintage” monitor; three rooms dedicated to listening, one for immersive listening, one with a proposal for listening through headphones associated with materials displayed inside the room and a room with a selection of listening sessions that the public can choose from a touch menu and which offer songs and music of peoples from around the world present in the Stratos record collection and the music created for the “Satyricon”; and, at the end, a niche containing a series of objects, memorabilia and materials that belonged to the artist.

For this new occasion an updated version of the will be created catalog published by Sigaretten Graphic Editions from the title “We don’t believe in style. The vocal research of Demetrio Stratos 1970-1979”including both the First and Second movements.

The photograph in this article portrays Demetrio Stratos during the solo recording of “Metrodora”, released for the Cramps/Diverso series, Milan, 1976, @Roberto Masotti, Lelli e Masotti Archive

Here you can listen to 10 vocal performances by Demetrio Stratos.