NAM – Not A Museum, Manifattura Tabacchi’s contemporary art project dedicated to interdisciplinary research, production and art practices, presents the installation Micromegàsuoni by the IPER-collettivo collective of artists at Fuorisalone 2022 in Milan.

Micromegàsuoni – a site-specific installation that creates a dialogue between urban and natural landscapes, is produced by NAM – Not A Museum, the contemporary art programme by Manifattura Tabacchi, within the first edition of the artist residences SUPERBLAST (Florence, April-September 2021) curated by Caterina Taurelli Salimbeni. NAM artist residences’ programme represents the reacquisition of a lost interval: a portal between worlds that is only apparently irreconcilable with the contemporary world. The installation is a multilayer wooden sculpture made up of two totem poles that are identical but placed in two connected locations: the city and the forest. The sound of the woods will be amplified by the shape of the structure that will, in turn, act as a sound board and open a sensory channel between the city centre and nature.

Micromegàsuoni originates from the observation of an empirical phenomenon and the will reconcile urban and natural landscapes through a shared experience which is both individual and collective. A gramophone, a megaphone: the former, located in the wood, records and collects ambient sounds from the Piegaro forest in Umbria and a number of wildlife parks in the Tuscany region; the latter, located in evolving regenerated spaces in Manifattura Tabacchi, acts as a soundboard inside the anthropised spaces. Thus, the artwork, fragmented in space and reconnected through the time of sound, provides refuge and shelter for city-dwellers, but is also a catalyst for retracing the sound in the opposite direction, from the city outwards, trying to reintegrate two environments that modernity has separated.

“The Micromegàsuoni project is the outcome of ongoing empirical research that was developed and came to fruition during the art residency experience in the first edition of SUPERBLAST. Here, through prototype manufacturing of its components, the artwork has come to life, finding its ‘voice’ at Manifattura Tabacchi. As a follow-on of the experience originating in Florence, the sounds of the forest will transfer themselves and temporarily invade the showrooms at BASE, situated at the former Officine Ansaldo, Milan. During the Milano Design Week, it will be possible to find shelter from the city hustle and bustle and absorb a hefty dose of natural sounds.” — IPER-collettivo.

Caterina Taurelli Salimbeni, curator at NAM – Not A Museum, states: “NAM – Not A Museum was created in Manifattura Tabacchi, Florence, as a support device for contemporary art productions. Similarly, SUPERBLAST plays a central role, given that it is an art residency project that ushers artists from their creations to exhibitions and editorial publications. The participation of Micromegàsuoni in Milano Design Week at BASE is the natural consequence of such an approach, as well as a NAM – Not A Museum trial run outside the city walls.”

From 6 to 12 June, the work will be exhibited at BASE, Via Bergognone 34, Milan, during the second edition of We Will Design, at Fuorisalone: an experimental design laboratory where designers from all over the world, schools, universities, international institutions and young students will be invited to conceive new tools, methods and experiences in response to the many contradictions of our time.

Micromegàsuoni is a multi-layered wooden sculpture interconnected by polygonal diaphragms set at regular intervals. Their size increases incrementally towards the open end of the totem.

The artwork was carried out in collaboration with PEFC, and the Listone Giordano – Margaritelli S.p.A. Foundation