Veneto Jazz, as part of the JAZZ& festival, presents “Matisse/JAZZ”, a video installation dedicated to the last years of the great painter Henri Matisse's life, when, at almost 80 years of age, in the midst of war and an illness that gave him no peace, he composed the beautiful Album de gouaches découpées (cut-out tempera paintings), entitled JAZZ (published by Teriade, 1947).
Matisse, following his passion and the “joie de vivre” that was always with him, managed to overcome everything, transforming limitations into resources. Sitting in his wheelchair, he began to cut out essential and poetic shapes with large scissors from sheets of paper painted in tempera with “his” colours. For him, it was like immersing himself directly in colour, like “a sculptor entering into the material”. In this way, almost without realising it, he invented a new language that would revolutionise the history of art.
The Jazz album is conceived almost like a musical score. It consists of 21 plates of pure colours, assembled by Matisse with a musical rhythm, as they are separated from each other by thoughts written in his large calligraphy, pushed to the point of becoming drawings. The specific aim was to attenuate the possible visual saturation that he feared, having to combine them all in one book.
The idea for the installation came from a theatre project that the director and musical theatre set designer Mietta Corli built around this Album - defined by Matisse as “the form of a staging” - where Matisse is observed at work in his studio, and at the same time one has the sensation of entering the pages of the Album, immersing oneself in the forms. A project halfway between a film and a musical theatre show, with live stage action immersed in video projections.
Hence the uniqueness of the video installation set up at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi: a live performer (Patrizio Roversi) visually evokes the image of Matisse at work in his studio, a presence that aims to be as light and poetic as the cheerfulness of Matisse's 80 years...
Matisse/JAZZ
directed and visually designed by Mietta Corli
with live participation by Patrizio Roversi
music by Jan Garbarek
voiceovers by Hendry Proni and Marco Rebecchi
and the collaboration of art historian Tomaso Montanari
Technical set-up by Ideogamma and Andrea Furlanetto Service
Veneto Jazz, as part of the JAZZ& festival, presents ‘Matisse/JAZZ’ with the support of Consorzio Tutela Piave Dop and Fondazione Villa Salus.
We would like to thank the Centre de Formation Professionnelle aux Techniques du Spectacle (CFPTS) in Paris for sharing some of the stage elements.
We would also like to thank Sergio Metalli, Anusc Castiglioni and Max Zanelli for their valuable collaboration.
