Curated by Amelia LiCavoli, Black Air presents a variety of artistic interventions into and through black air. In addition to the re-activation of a 1968 electronic environment of video and pneumatics by Aldo Tambellini and Otto Piene, a publication, site-specific installations, and performances have been commissioned. Ibrahim R. Ineke’s painting and artist’s book set the human scale. Semiconductor maps scientific data of expanses of dark matter within specific superclusters of galaxies and visualises them as sculptural reliefs, accompanied by sound. Ayako Kato performs a psychophysiological exploration of black air through choreography. Max Kuiper constructs a mixed-media installation of transparent sheets with encased objects, video projections, and sound. Lisa Slodki suspends CRT monitors which continuously loop a series of mechanical and organic vignettes. A selection of landscapes by Hans de Wit suggests a burst of radiation, a churning of air pressure, and the emergence of biological antennae. Together these artworks demonstrate the amorosity of black air – which becomes visible or tangible only through its interactions, relationships, and effects.

Amelia LiCavoli is a Chicago-based curator and writer specializing in intermedia art. Since 2014 she has been developing a book manuscript that documents the underground history of Aldo Tambellini’s Black Gate Theater and its integration within experimental-film and electromedia-performance art of the 1960s. Since 2003, Amelia LiCavoli has published catalogue essays, monographs, long-form articles, and exhibition/performance reviews. She has also curated gallery exhibitions and video and film screenings at venues such as Experimental Sound Studio, Artists’ Television Access, and Western Exhibitions in the US, Nes Artist Residency in Iceland, and CCRD opderschmelz in Luxembourg.  

Image: Ibrahim R. Ineke