Venezia, 11 May. (askanews) – Dardust inaugurated at the Venice Pavilion, as part of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (9 May – 22 November 2026), SommersiVo, an immersive sound installation for which he signed a new original composition as part of the exhibition project Persistent Notes. In conjunction with the inauguration, which took place on May 8, the composition was published on digital platforms.
Created in collaboration with the set designer Paolo Fantin and with the technological support of H-Farm and Cisco, the installation recreates an underwater environment in which the piano, as if suspended beneath the surface, continues to play even in the absence of the artist, returning the echo of a performance recorded and imprinted in the mechanics of the keys. Every 55 minutes the instrument activates autonomously, giving life to a composition that regenerates over time: an emotional reverberation that crosses the space and recalls the very identity of Venice, a city suspended between visible and submerged, between presence and memory.
The work also develops as an interactive experience: the public is invited to leave their own thoughts, which are processed by an artificial intelligence system and translated into sound. Each contribution corresponds to an emotion, and to each emotion one of the musical micro-themes recorded by Dardust, which the piano returns in real time, offering visitors a different and unrepeatable experience each time it generates.
This strengthens the concept of “emotional reverberation”, in which individual experience expands to become a collective and continuously evolving performance. Venice itself is transformed into a dynamic sound organism, while the visitor becomes an active part of the creative process.
“SommersiVo was born from the idea that some sounds exist only beneath the surface. Venice is a city that lives on two levels: the visible one and the submerged one, made of memory, stratifications and suspended time. Music becomes an immersion in this invisible space, where every note is echoed and continues to vibrate even when it seems to vanish. In dialogue with the Venice Pavilion, my work crosses the deepest dimension of the city, trying to translate it into sound: a place where past and present merge, and in which what we have been does not disappear, but remains, submerged and alive. It is here that the most subversive gesture of sound manifests itself: continuing to exist as a memory beyond time and space” – Dardust.
Meanwhile, the Urban Impressionism Tour (Vivo Concerti) continues in Italy and Europe with stops in Milan @ Teatro San Babila on 20 (sold out) and 21 May, Lisbon @ Centro Cultural de Belém on 23 May, Paris @ New Morning on 26 May and London (UK) @ Courtyard Theater on 27 May, Scandiano (RE) @ FestivaLove on 29 May (new date), Lugo (RA) @ Lugo Music Festival on 20 June, Jesolo @ Festival Aqua piano only on 23 June, Bologna @ WMF – We Make Future on 26 June, Bergamo @ Lazzaretto on 11 July (new date), Savelletri (BR) @ Porto Rubino electro set on 16 July (new date) and Calatafimi (TP) @ Teatro Segesta piano only on 16 August.
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