“Master in Sound Art from the University of Barcelona. He has a degree in Visual Arts from Unesp – São Paulo – Brazil. Meditation practitioner and researcher, he studied Meditation and Dharma Chan and Tai Chi Chuan at Fo Guang University of Humanist Buddhism Studies at Zu Lai-Brasil Temple. He studied Chinese language and culture at the University of Hubei-Wuhan-China”
Seven Years in China is Bartolini’s project and research on sound listening and meditation. Between 2013 and 2020, there were more than 40 performances in different provinces of China, including the sacred mountains: Wudang “Wu-Tang Shan” – Shiyan of Hubei and Taoist temple complex, monasteries and palaces.
Scientific Researcher of the Project “Contemporary Tridimensional Hybrid: Dimensional Hybridism Wiki in Contemporary Art”, with research in sound sculpture, meditation and art. Art and Technology, Modular Concentration and Sound Sculpture: “Procedurality Between Silence and Sound, East and West”
Gustavo Bartolini creates sound sculptures, installations and performances that connect Western and Eastern culture and art to integrate the mystical past with contemporary philosophy. Ancient cosmology and quantum physics are the essence of his works.
He employs simple but highly symbolic materials of historical importance, often associated with spirituality and which have degraded over time, such as discarded wood from monasteries. During his seven-year pilgrimage through China, he collected wood from various sacred sites, displaying this material collected after treatment to reveal the wood’s original beauty, often forgotten by time. Material transformed into percussive sound sculptures that served as centerpieces of performances about mind and silence where local people could participate and learn about deep listening.
His work is deeply marked by the contrast of his social distance during a period of mental training in Buddhist monasteries and their traditional structure and with his interest in artistic expression in the western avant-garde. “The discarded wood from the monastery, which I later use in my sound sculpture, keeps the marks of time, has its history, which evokes the past in the viewer’s mind” … “The viewer in my sound sculpture must find a form to become aware of the “true silence”, gradually distinguishing the sounds that arise from its conventional perception, differing from the true silence of the mind, completely updating the attention to the present without distracting the memory beyond words and concepts”, comments the artist.
Channeling these principles, his works invite a contemplative, even meditative, engagement of the viewer.
“I lived in the monastery as a monk, but I never received a full ordinance because I suspected that my deepest spiritual issues should push me to the limits of art and demand complete freedom to experience reality,” adds Gustavo.
The consequence of long periods of observation and attentive listening taken from the forests was the beginning of new creative processes linked to nature. Meditating extensively immersed in forests ended up building a special bond with nature. Recent works already present this ecological orientation with experiments with biomaterials and microorganisms.
