CULT

Published: 2009 - September/October, ZOOM

Venice - Architecture for the sound
Artists often prepare in our cities the solidity of an object.  They treat an aspect, up to deforming it  and they put the artifact in an environment so that it is able to restore a visual or significant effect, a concept in some way  which is able to rouse in our heads a sensory  personalized change.  This artistic process could be understood as “installation”, a word which has by now become part of the contemporary artistic language.  In July, twenty years ago, in Venice, a city very often a destination of artistic installations, the Pink Floyd mainly installed “sound”. An ensemble of “sound essence” reconstructive only from the sensory memory of who attended the concert and which passed into the city’s history  and into the history of music.  The Pink Floyd were fond of certain scenery and loved installing themselves in their own way, they are loyal to their artistic genius:  already in the archaeological area of Pompeii in 1970, they orchestrated a performance to soundproof in a psychedelic way that very charming landscape.  In 1989, it was Venice’s turn, and the Lagoon became the setting to achieve one of their wishes and express it at its best, turning to their expressive equipment.

New York - My name is Sheena
 Sheena is a name which has become part of the American name’s dictionary, at least as much as the Ramones – the punk band of the blitz sounds founded in 1974 in the Queens district of New York -  they have become part of the history of music. “ Sheena is a punk rocker “ is the first single of the group – taken from the album “Rocket to Russia” (1977) – and it reached 81st place in the hit parade of Billboard (the magazine that often shows the progress of musician’s popularity), remaining there for 13 weeks to confirm definitely Ramones contribution to the theory and practice of punk-rock.  Just what Joey Ramones (singer in the group) declared to the Rolling Stone magazine, the title of the single came from the unedited association between the name of the character of a popular comic strip “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle” and the term “punk-rock”.  “I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk-rock.  It was funny, because all the girls in New York seemed to change their names to Sheena after that”.
A short, simple, quick positive statement like the pieces and the look of the group, evidently inspired by a minimalist harmony (the minimalism conquered New York, that soon would be animated by Street Art and Neo-expressionism) T-shirt, leather jacket and trainers.  Unfailing, finally, the fringe the same as that prepared on the forehead of the hundreds of fans who chose to transform themselves into Sheena Queen among the images of punk-rock.