Objekt-tief. Benassi does not change, he modifies and manipulates, he engages himself in the process and leads the usual usage to the absurd. He forces the observer to look closely where he would otherwise only listen - rather than the other way around.
Objekt-tief
The machine as a doubled form of deceptive packaging, as trompe l’oeil
and l’oreille. The record player does not retransmit sound through its
traditional means, two guitar amplifiers masturbate, the transistor
radio is manic-depressive: to send or to receive, that is the question
here. Megahertz mutations and sound caricatures, but only at first
glance. Then the groove begins; it overlaps the sound riveted in place
by Riccardo Benassi which itself extends into intense rawness, it is
part of these sound systems, which fulfil their own requirements. The
apparatus protests against the user which it no longer needs, against
instruction as the solitary means for the transport for sound. It
refuses and becomes newly-redefined, but then nevertheless again goes on
to deploy the assistance of the human, the optic-acoustic intermediate
artist. Benassi does not change, he modifies and manipulates, he engages
himself in the process and leads the usual usage to the absurd. Riccardo
Benassi forces the observer to look closely where he would otherwise
only listen - rather than the other way around. His accomplices on this
journey of the misuse of music are, for example, small, metal balls
which tumble about on diaphragms, ricochet through the inner workings of
the loudspeakers and mischievously bustle their way at and around the
antennas. Thus new life is breathed into the machine, and the rhythm is
provided with a basis.
No, that is not noise but rather the attempt to push the senses more
closely together, to superimpose, to fuse, to direct the ocular towards
auditory perception. Benassi’s sound installations, his manipulated loud
speakers and turntables, can be read and listened to in many different
ways. Steps reverberate through the night, insects circle threateningly
over the roof, and in the distance one can hear rhythmic
tribal-rituals.
Aside from all these stories, which tell us the instruments used by the
illusionist Benassi, the sound also serves its purpose for the club - if
it leaves dimension below the border of perception and resonates from
the boxes.
That is it, the poetry of unrest.
by Anna-Bianca Krause
Opening: 7th July 2006
Galerie Davide Gallo
Linienstrasse 156 - Berlin
2:00 pm to 7:00 pm (from Tuesday to Saturday)