Luigi M. Verde
RADICanto
The subtitle of the conference organized again this year by the ALTANUR Cultural Association could be: "From Unexpected Connections to Deep Connections". At first glance, the worlds of language, alchemy, and transmutation seem like an unlikely trio. But if we dig a little deeper, we discover some truly intriguing connections between these three seemingly different fields.
Language is like a hero of transmutation, capable of transforming ignorance into wisdom, fear into courage and even hatred into love. On the other hand, alchemy, that old quest to turn lead into gold or find the elixir of eternal youth, can be seen as a kind of metaphor for the linguistic process. Alchemists sought to cleanse and transform basic ingredients into nobler substances. Similarly, language performs a kind of conceptual magic, taking ideas, experiences, and emotions and converting them into words and speech. But be careful, this is not a simple process! It requires a fair amount of purification and refinement, just like alchemy. Ideas are put into the fire and shaped before being shared with the world. The ultimate goal for both alchemy and language is the creation of something more valuable and meaningful, an attempt to transform ignorance into knowledge and darkness into light.
"Cattivo Costume" created an incredible soundtrack for this short video clip with which we want to celebrate this year's event. The starting point is a primordial sound, a sort of will that first manifests itself through the didgeridoo, a traditional instrument of the Australian aborigines that evokes an archaic, animal instinct, still full of chaos. This initial sound evolves, increasingly taking on an "ordered" architecture. Starting from the voices, bearers of melody and mathematics, and with the rhythmic design of the frame drums, traditional instruments of the Mediterranean area, we imagined ritual atmospheres of the native peoples. Until reaching a turning point, where the voices explore the boundaries, taking the tones to the extreme. Almost in a deformation, a destructuring of the architecture itself which becomes "liquid", in an emotional crescendo. It was as if the very architecture of music liquefied towards a new human structure, in harmony with creation.
Finally, from a photographic point of view we instead focused on a slightly disturbing-looking scenario, with the aim of creating a visual shift on how we perceive the world when our eyes refuse to connect with the earth, the roots, the language of nature. It is precisely from this idea that the title RADICanto was born: a sort of fusion between singing and roots. Our gaze is confined within the trap of language: transmutation offers us that change of perspective that frees us from restless visions, ferrying us into a new condition of serenity. The world appears in the right light only if the alchemical forces manage to give a complete course to this process of transformation capable of opening us up to more authentic horizons.
Link to the video on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/QsGyYfMw1Ys