Sonia Boyce: Benevolence

On the occasion of the project Thinking Like a Mountain, GAMeC returns to the prestigious Palazzo della Ragione venue, in the heart of the old town, with a new site-specific project conceived for the Sala delle Capriate by the English artist Sonia Boyce (London, 1962).

Since the late 1980s, the artist has addressed themes such as identity, social dynamics as well as racial and gender marginalization in an explicitly political manner. More recently, she has concentrated on experimenting with a relational practice that combines the aesthetic and political values of participation and collaboration, producing works that focus on history and “acoustic” memory, bound together by a love for music, sound and the voice.

The project for Palazzo della Ragione led the artist to approach the Bergamo area and its history with curiosity, and to focus her attention on traditional Italian folksongs.

Boyce embarked on a collaboration project with three students from the “Gaetano Donizetti” Higher Institute of Musical Studies in Bergamo, who were invited last autumn to perform and improvise popular songs in the heart of Bergamo’s “Città Alta.” In particular, the artist and the students noted how Bella Ciao has now become a symbol of global and transgenerational resistance. This song, which resonated spontaneously among passersby during the filming in Piazza Vecchia, provided the starting point for Boyce to undertake a major reflection on the meaning of music, its value over time and its ability to unite, but also to divide.

This dialogue between Sonia Boyce and the students shows a great deal about the process that led to the staging of Benevolence, consisting of six “visual monuments” that occupy the Sala delle Capriate in Palazzo della Ragione. The environmental video installation, which originated from a performance made into a film, has been generated by the artist’s mediation of the video and photographic material filmed.