SERGIO MALTAGLIATI — TRIBUTE TO JOHN CAGE - FB
SERGIO MALTAGLIATI — TRIBUTE TO JOHN CAGE
Performance of the XV Florence Biennale, 22 October at 5PM
Sergio Maltagliati (1960) is a multimedia artist and composer, among the first in Italy to explore interactive digital scores and visual music. A student of Pietro Grossi, a pioneer of electronic music and computer music, he has developed a body of work that connects image, sound, and interaction, ranging from net-art to generative music, from multimedia installations to digital performances. An Academician of the Class of Music and Performing Arts at the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence, he has presented his works in museums, festivals, and international institutions. His practice is distinguished by the use of interactive digital languages as a means of opening the work, where the audience is engaged as an active participant and co-author in the creative process.
This project is conceived as a tribute to John Cage, master of silence and creative freedom, and is presented at the XV Florence Biennale. Three performances, each lasting the symbolic 4’33”, explore listening, action, and collective participation, weaving historical memory with contemporary digital languages.
In the first performance, images, scores, and quotations appear on the big screen in seemingly random sequence, inviting a visual listening to silence. In the second, ten performers interact with their own devices on a large scenic reproduction of a Cage painting, transforming gesture into sound and the painting into a living score. In the third, the audience becomes protagonist: through a QR code, visitors connect with their smartphones or tablets and “play” the painting, contributing to a collective texture diffused throughout the space.
The visual component incorporates original archival documents (letters, interviews, press reviews), reelaborated into a generative flow. References to works such as 4′33″ (1952), Music Walk (1958), and Music of Changes (1951) resurface through interactive digital tools, renewing Cage’s legacy as a living and participatory practice rather than a nostalgic citation. The staging requires large-format video projection, stereo audio, and an ambient microphone that integrates environmental sounds into the composition. The symbolic duration may be repeated or extended, leaving behind an audio-video record that continues as an interactive installation. In line with the XV Biennale’s theme, the project connects silence and sound, individual and community, memory and technology, offering the audience a poetic and collective experience — intimate yet open to the future.
Presentation at the Theatre Area (Spadolini Pavilion)
of the XV Florence Biennale:
Wednesday, 22 October, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.
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