In collaboration with Judith Deschamps & Jesse Cahn-Thompson
“This research plunges into the depths of a ritual that linked the 18th century castrato singer Farinelli to Spanish King Philip V. Every night for a decade, Farinelli sang for the King to alleviate his melancholy.
Developed collaboratively with singers, children, sound engineers and an AI, this project is an attempt to recreate Farinelli’s voice and the king’s favourite song: Quell’usignolo che innamorato – that nightingale who is in love. By recomposing this song and reviving the ghost of Farinelli through other sculptural elements, the artist attempts to express the anxiety that lies behind the human need to hear – and even to produce – the purity of such voice.”
-Judith Deschamps
Exhibited in La Tôlerie, Clermont-Ferrand, FR | December 2017
Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK | February 2018
