After premiering at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Marco Fusinato brings his mercurial noise project to NantStudios Docklands from 30- 31 August, as part of Now or Never.
It’s somewhat ironic that contemporary artist and noise musician Marco Fusinato’s newest project is titled after the Spanish word for disaster, given it’s been a tremendous success.
DESASTRES debuted in April 2022 at the Venice Biennale to sweeping fascination from audiences. Located in the Australian pavilion and performed over 200 days, the project was created to be a unique experience for its audience.
DESASTRES at Now or Never
- The Australian premiere of Marco Fusinato’s acclaimed audio-visual work
- Fri 30 Aug — Sat 31 Aug | 4pm-10pm
- NantStudios, 62 Pearl River Rd, Docklands
- Tickets available here
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“The intent was always to create some sort of hallucination so that the audience can find elation in disorientation and exhaustion from confusion,” he says. “But ultimately, I want everyone who attends to leave with something unique. At times it can be ecstatic and then at other times a complete fucking disaster.”
DESASTRES, which was created by Fusinato in Melbourne during lockdown, exists as a sort of fusion of all his interests.
The project is a visceral performance where Fusinato improvises slabs of noise that trigger a flood of imagery onto floor-to-ceiling LED screens. For the Melbourne performances at NantStudios Docklands, the imagery will be projected onto the largest LED volume screen in the world, measuring 12 metres high and 88 metres wide.
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Fascinated by noise and conceptual art from a tender age, with DESASTRES, Fusinato has forged a bridge between the two worlds. After being “locked in a room” for two years, he began to collate the images and piece together the work. Influenced by Japanese doom band Corrupted and renowned Spanish painter Francisco Goya, DESASTRES eventually began to take shape.
“It started with me sourcing images from online platforms. Then I got frustrated because it took a while. So, I just used my phone camera to take pictures on the screen. I pulled a lot of images from all over the place. Selecting images that are contradictory and confounding so that you can read it one way, and the person standing next to you can read it completely differently.”
When it came to practically putting the piece together, Fusinato reflected on space within live performance. “When a band usually forms, they play rehearsal rooms. If the musician becomes more successful the stages get bigger, but the space they occupy remains small. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to form a project where it begins at stadium scale. The idea that I could plug into Taylor Swift’s rig and perform at that scale. Let’s begin with the spectacle.”
While the piece was featured in the Australian pavilion at the Biennale, as Fusinato puts it, “It is removed from any reading of Australia. My work is about exploring themes that could resonate with anyone anywhere.” For Fusinato, the opportunity to showcase his work in Venice was particularly special given his family is from there.
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“Going back to the place they migrated from to represent the country they migrated to was really profound. Now bringing it back to Australia, to the place where I live, feels like a full circle moment.”
The Now or Never performance of DESASTRES will be different as the project will be increasingly alive. “It keeps mutating and changing. I keep adding images. The sound is improvised, and the images are too. No matter when you walk in on the piece, it will be different to what it was minutes earlier. Each time it’s presented, it’s very different.”
Unlike many visual artists, who create a work of art and let it exhibit untouched, for Fusinato, DESASTRES is a full working day. “It’s ultimately a performance installation. I play for eight hours, sometimes six, and in that period I try and find something and sit on it for 15 minutes. Then I try and take it somewhere else so it’s always shifting and moving.”
While Fusinato admits, this is a “very long day”, he remains in the zone for every performance. Aided by turning his back to the audience, Fusinato describes the performances as being “physical and demanding, but also very satisfying. The sound takes me to unimagined places.”
Fusinato is also kept on his toes by the erratic changing of images on the large screens before him. Never knowing what’s coming next, tens of thousands of images are shown in each performance. To control them, Fusinato uses a custom-designed foot pedal to influence duration, speed and panning.
While Fusinato hopes that everyone leaves DESASTRES having enjoyed their time, he reconciles that it is “polarising, visceral, loud and very ugly.” As he puts it, “You’re either in there for a long time and with it. Or you can’t even last a few seconds.”
DESASTRES will be running from 30 – 31 August 2024 at NantStudios Docklands as part of Now or Never. Tickets can be accessed here.
Beat is an official media partner of Now or Never.
