Story by Silvia Minguzzi

In conjunction with the exhibition Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University will present a free performance by internationally acclaimed performer, composer, conductor and historian Luciano Chessa, on Wednesday, March 25, from 5 to 6 p.m.

The program will take place in the Organ Recital Hall, located immediately above the museum, on the second floor of the University Center for the Arts, at 1400 Remington St. A reception will follow the performance in the museum.

Luciano Chessa is a composer, conductor, audiovisual and performance artist, and music historian. His performance of “intensely visual scores” in a concert he curated for Routette Intermedium last December was described as “gripping” by New York Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini. For his program at CSU, Chessa will present a set of compositions for piano, organ and amplified voice based on Futurist sound poems by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Carlo Carrà. The program also includes Chessa’s most recent “Inneschi” for microfeedback, sleigh bells and bullhorn, and Cromlech, a large organ piece he premiered in Melbourne’s Town Hall in May 2018.

Other work

Some of Chessa’s other compositions include the opera Cena oltranzista nel castelletto al lago — a work merging experimental theater with reality TV, which required the cast to fast for more than 55 hours — and A Heavenly Act, an opera commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with original video by Kalup Linzy. Chessa has been commissioned multiple times by the Performa Biennial, and in 2014 he presented three events at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe. Chessa’s work has appeared repeatedly in Artforum, Flash Art, Art in America and Frieze; and has been featured in Marie Claire and in Vogue Italia. His most recent record, The Noise of Art, was released in March 2019.

Chessa is also a music historian specializing in 20th-century Italian and 21st-century American repertoires. He is the author of Luigi Russolo Futurist: Noise, Visual Arts, and the Occult (2012), the first book dedicated to Russolo and his “Art of Noise.” In 2009, his Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners (OFNI) was hailed by the New York Times as one of the best events of the year. In 2018, among many other projects, he prepared the diplomatic edition of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. II, the world premiere of which he conducted at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with Mannes Orchestra. The New York Times described his rendition as a work that “radiates Cosmic Grandeur.” Chessa also recently published a chapter on Eastman’s “Gay Guerrilla,” which closes the book of the same title. The book is the first one dedicated to Eastman’s music, now out in paperback from the University of Rochester Press.

Cercle et Carré exhibit

This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art, which focuses on the influential but short-lived artistic group known as Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square). Founded in 1929 by Belgian artist and critic Michel Seuphor, Uruguayan-Spanish artist Joaquín Torres-García and Spanish-American artist Pierre Daura, the group also included such names as Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Alexandra Exter, Le Corbusier, and many others, and represented every major trend in European abstraction at the time, including a contingent of Italian Futurist artists. The exhibition is on view until April 11, and is free and open to all.

The Gregory Allicar Museum of Art invites individuals to engage with art and each other to inspire fresh perspectives and wonder. General museum hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday until 7:30 p.m., and all exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. The museum is a catalyst for visual literacy and critical thinking that instills a passion for learning. For updated museum information, go to artmuseum.colostate.edu.