Carl Faia: Year Zero, Blackout, Nanni Balestrini, Paris

Année Zéro (Year Zero) is a proposal for an “action” based on the work of the Italian artist Nanni Balestrini (experimental poet, author and visual artist), especially his poem Blackout and his visual art work. Balestrini, involved in far left Italian activists groups — notably Potere opera — created a violent approach to visual art works to better capture the word’s essence, using such as  techniques of cutting, folding, permutation, and repetition and unusual punctuation. In his visual compositions, the word is treated as in the work of the Dadaists or Lettristes. Balestrini captures the tensions of the period in Italy after 1968 in his writing… As a poetic, musical and visual work, Année Zéro, directed by Judith Depaule, restores these years of turmoil through, in part, the extensive and experimental use of technology.

Carl Faia worked on and developed the video treatment of the projected texts and has worked extensively with ondiste Nadia Ratsimandresy during several residencies in Art Zoyd Studios to create an augmented instrument based around the ondes Martenot and Max.

The show will be premiered, Nanni Balestrini will be present, in Paris at Confluences the 31 January and the 1st and 2nd of February before going on tour. More info by clicking here or on the photos.