intermedia
Lab for Contemporary Art
HERMES
The spirit of the gesture is the combination of space and time. Anton Giulio Bragaglia saw photodynamism as "modern magic," emphasizing light's importance in the technical and expressive world. Hermes Intermedia continues this idea, raising audiovisuals to a representation of complexity. It delves into reading and depicting music's cross-cutting forms, its three-dimensional and intermittent dynamics, the trails of its moving substance, and the visual aspects of its countless relationships.
Founded in 1997, the group Hermes Intermedia consists of Giovanni Fontana, Giampiero Gemini, Valerio Murat, and Antonio Poce. These four artists navigate a realm blending art, technology, and performance.
Their most original invention is called Flash Opera, a type of composition that blends Italian musical theater tradition with digital audiovisual technology, enhancing the integration among the media shaping the opera.
«This emphasis on music is a central element of Hermes Intermedia's work. The complexity of musical composition has driven the group to explore beyond individual art forms. They were pioneers in the concept of "intermedial writing," not just in theory but also in their daily creative practice, as shown by their extensive catalog. […]
This is their merit: developing a compositional technique that incorporates different materials and elements from various sources into a single creative project. […]
Images in intermedial works are implicit in the music itself, forming part of its inner paradigms. This perspective embraces a fully "audiovisual" concept of composition, where music emerges as a multifaceted art form. It employs a technically suitable writing style to capture fleeting plots and atmospheres. This music operates knowingly within the realm of memory, showcasing an understanding of its dynamics and subtle mechanisms.
Hermes Intermedia is praised for integrating classical knowledge with experimental music, particularly from the 1960s and 1970s. The group's unique merit lies in leveraging both academic and experimental expertise to evoke emotion and expressive quality.
Their approach involves exploring new worlds and crafting innovative syntheses.».
Ennio Morricone
in Visione Molteplice, a collection of essays edited
by Marco Maria Gazzano, Armando Editore 2018
