Client
Original format by Elastica
Services
Concept
Graphic design
Exhibition design
Sound design
Installation
Catalogue
Press Office
Where and when
Bologna, November 2024
Read the
press release
Not only was it a reunion between Elastica and Luca Carboni, an artist who left his mark on the history of Italian music, but a challenge and a pleasure, to come together and find the best way to tell a lesser-known side of his creativity, namely that dedicated to visual art, celebrating forty years of his music from this angle.
Luca Carboni has never been just a musician or a singer: he’s an innovator of literature and lyrics. He introduced a new poetics into songwriting and expressed himself through parallel but never separate mediums: musical narration and visual narration have always gone hand-in-hand, and he was the first to combine them.
And in this circuit of creative expression, the same that Elastica navigates in the communication field, the project Rio Ari O was born.
The theme of the exhibition, produced in collaboration with the Settore musei civici Bologna | Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica and curated by contemporary art critic and curator Luca Beatrice, has been structured around different levels of storytelling: a cabinet of curiosities at the entrance and four rooms with works on display, but also objects, record covers, unpublished texts and recollections, offering the visitor a sort of behind-the-scenes look at the notepads, notes, drawings and paintings as a parallel but not separate output from the musical hits.
And then, of course, the music, with a sound design that includes songs, unreleased tracks and audio recordings from the studio, all accompanied by images and video clips in a playful setting.
Completing the exhibition is a catalogue produced in partnership with Elastica’s literary agency: edited by SEM and printed in a limited run of 500 copies, all signed by the artist and for sale in the Bologna’s Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica and main bookshops. It is sure to be a must-have for fans and collectors.
Also part of the project is “Rio Ari O incontri”, a series of public conversations which, aside from Carboni, include other artists who he counts as peers and friends as speakers.
Promotion began with a thoughtful selection of the most strategic media outlets, and then developed in tandem with the online and offline fronts. Maximum interest was generated by the exhibition, which made it possible to develop a communication plan that was both targeted and guaranteed massive local and national coverage.
From one-on-one interviews with national newspapers conducted by top names such as Walter Veltroni in Corriere della Sera to television reports on major national news channels such as Tg1, Tg3, Studio Aperto, Skytg24.
This initiative has the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the patronage of the City of Bologna, and is realised with the sponsorship of EmilBanca, the Hera Group, Macron, and Manifattura Ceccarelli, in addition to the contribution of Michele Casadei Massari, a Bolognese chef based in New York who, in partnership with the Appennino Food Group and La Fenice Catering & Banqueting, took care of the opening night’s food and beverage. Technical sponsor EFFE 3 Design. Radio Capital is the official radio station of the exhibition.
