LAUDES REGIAE multimedia installation

"LAUDES REGIAE"
by Andrea Morucchio

Ex Convento Santi Cosma e Damiano, Salone del Camino Giudecca, Venezia 08.06_ 29.07 2007

[multimedia installation]

Laudes Regiae is an articulated and complex installation. Coherent with the main thread which runs through Andrea Morucchio's research, it aims at emotional involvement and reflection, using different expressive languages and means, and proposes transversal connections between historic heredity, spiritual journey and socio-political contemporaneity. Developed for the space of the ex Convent of Saints Cosma and Damian (XI century), it consists of 15 frosted red blown glass helmets (inspired by the "sparrow's beak" sallet from the XIV century helmet in the Armory of the Doge's Palace, Venice), of images projected using various techniques (of the Wolf of Passau, the effigy emblazoned on the swords produced in the Middle Ages in the village bearing the same name), and of the audio track of the so-called Laudes Regiae (the Chorus for the Crowning Mass taken from the Bramberg Manuscript [XI century])... yet, in the words of philosopher Giorgio Agamben, "The function of the acclamations and of the Gloria, in the modern form of public opinion and of consense is still at the heart of the political devices of contemporary democracy" (The Kingdom and the Glory, 2007).

Laudes Regiae is the result of the combination of the bare, minimal context of the Hall of the Fireplace of the ex Convent of Saints Cosma and Damian (XI century) and the installative elements: a projection of the running Wolf of Passau, the "formation" of red glass helmets, along with the repeated verses of liturgical acclamations. The ambience is illuminated solely by natural light pouring in through the fourteen east and westward facing windows. The light is filtered and diffused by the thin veils of raw white cloth, which render the whole exhibition space homogenous, enveloping and hieratic. Andrea Morucchio's stimulus and proposal for reflection, thus use a "high", clean aesthetic, which is intensely evocative, in order to arrive at equally profound rational themes.

The title Laudes Regiae draws inspiration from the liturgical invocations which accompanied the crowning of sovereigns in antiquity and in Christian society. Starting from Christ Victor, they served to acclaim in Him his emperors, sovereigns, bishops and popes. Through the choral repetition, the prayer took on the function of confirming the divine derivation of human power. According to Morucchio, an analysis of the contents and the sense of these acclamations, expressions of a type of medieval political theology, permits us to recognize surprising elements of continuity with the contemporary world, where, still today, in evolved Western society, the ceremonial, liturgical and acclamatory aspects constitute the basis of demonstrations of power.

http://morucchio.it/new/multimedia.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• 52
• Biennale
• Venezia
• Venice
• morucchio
• contemporary
• art
• installation
• multimedia
• laudes
• regiae

[dies1domini]

This was a Crusader marching song only for Hollywoods film-maker, because they think with good reasons that most people do not recognize the words (traditional prayers) nor the music (Gregorian chant). The use of chant with Latin words to convey a barbaric feeling was already adopted by Prokofiev in the music for 1938 Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky (The Crusaders in Pskov). But he did not used church music, he composed it (Peregrinus expectavi, pedes meos, in cymbalis).

[philhines]

Funny how most versions of this song I've found so far have a massive Cathedral reverb. This was a Crusader marching song, which would have been sung out in the open with nothing for their voices to reverberate off!

Anywho, I'm still looking for a version with the full melodic quality that I learned in a choir a couple of weeks ago... All males would make it more authentic too I think...

[hhmartini]

As some people would say, 'this is bad-ass'!

[AlbertaAllan]

Forgive me for being ignorant but I'm a little bit lost here. Either these helmets represent knights or cardinals. It seems to me that one of them has fallen.