To celebrate the closing of long last happy by Ugo Rondinone, Arte Abierto presents a special edition of Meditatio Sonus.
This sound art series offers meditations guided by sound and encourages mindfulness through the practice of deep listening. In this edition, the program will unfold over two days, with two different meditations each day—one in the morning and one in the afternoon. All sessions will take place in the gallery, between Ugo Rondinone’s sculptures the sun(2022) and the moon (2022), creating an immersive experience that connects visual and sound art. Commissioned sound artists will explore the relationship between mind, sound, and technology. The four meditation sessions will be guided live through sound pieces created specifically for this series. Meditatio Sonus is a space for researching the phenomenon of sound from the perspective of art, where listening and meditation practices converge.
Sunday, June 8 will feature two meditations, each led by a different artist:
11:00 AM | HUGO SOLÍS
For this guided meditation session, the artist draws from rhythmic motifs used across numerous cultures and traditions to generate rituals and collective trances. Mantras, prayers, chants, rosaries, and other sonic repetition techniques will be reinterpreted through an electroacoustic piano, framed within minimalist music aesthetics, using delay and reverberation techniques designed to accompany participants in meditation. The performance will be divided into two clearly contrasting sections that reflect the sculptural dialogue of the space, intentionally engaging with Ugo Rondinone’s the sunand the moon. The first half will evoke slow, calm, and melancholic rituals, while the second will refer to luminous and hopeful chants and rituals.
5:00 PM | ARCANGELO CONSTANTINI
Part of the Speaker Strings series, which explores sympathetic resonance, this session features a unique string instrument intervention. A classical guitar, worn by decades of use, has been transformed into a four-string bass through radical modifications. The original mechanics were replaced, and a door hinge was used as an improvised string support. A subwoofer was also embedded in the acoustic body, expanding its sonic capabilities and giving it an experimental character. Through this metamorphosis, the instrument enters an existential flow, engaging in dialogues with hypothetical aesthetic processes. Sympathetic resonance—understood here as a poetic and aesthetic phenomenon—reveals a deep connection between two vibrating entities. When two systems reach harmonic affinity, an invisible flow of energy and meaning emerges. This shared resonance generates a symphony of emotions and insights, seeking to transcend the limits of language and enable a more profound, enigmatic form of communication with the audience.
–Arte Abierto
*The exhibition will be open only to those participating in the meditations that weekend.