Video as Arrangement: Sylvano Bussotti at the Biennale

From 1988 to 1991 Sylvano Bussotti took over the artistic direction of the Music Sector of the Biennale Musica in Venice. During the festivals organized under his aegis – Biennale Musica 1989 and Sestina Musicale Novantuno – Bussotti supervised two audiovisual productions that immediately catalyzed the attention of the audience and of the newspapers: the musical film Biennale Apollo (1989) and 5 Videogiornali della Sestina musicale 91 (1991). Following his peculiar attention towards the audiovisual media shown since the Sixties, in these videos Bussotti reflects through the cinematic lens on the status of art music and, consequently, on the identity of Biennale Musica, mixing high- and middlebrow culture against the backdrop of contemporary visual culture. Combining textual and audiovisual sources preserved at the Biennale’s Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee and at the Archivi del Teatro Contemporaneo di Riccione Teatro (Riccione), in this paper I trace the genesis and the role of these productions within the festivals mission, with a particular emphasis on the re-arrangement techniques employed, as well as on the intertextual relations with Bussotti’s other works. Additionally, I examine the peculiar performative dimension of the two videos, reconstructing the dynamics of the live reenactment of the “soundtrack”, as well as the relocation of television screens throughout the festival performance spaces.