Dixit Algorizmi: The Garden of Knowledge finissage

Debuting at the 59th International Venice Biennale, The Art and Culture Development Foundation of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ACDF) will present Dixit Algorizmi—The Garden of Knowledge, curated and designed by the architectural and research studio Space Caviar (Joseph Grima, Camilo Oliveira, Sofia Pia Belenky, Francesco Lupia) and Sheida Ghomashchi. The Uzbekistan National Pavilion will present a reflection on the seminal work of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwārizmī, a scientist and polymath born and raised in the city of Khiva (present-day Uzbekistan). Al-Khwārizmī’s treatise On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals (825 CE) was responsible for the introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe, and it was the Latin transliteration of al-Khwārizmī’s name to Algorizmi that gave us the modern word algorithm.

Body Effort Shape Space
As the Biennale comes to an end, the Pavilion and the curatorial team present the last two events of the extensive public programme designed to become a place of knowledge exchange. 

On Saturday, November 26, Alessandro Bava and Elisa Giuliano will present a new work which brings together movement and drawing. They reflected on the origins of algorithms in ritualized movement practices in a lineage culminating with dance pioneer Rudolf Laban who was the first to attempt building a notation system for movement. The performance will explore the link between spatial notations (architectural drawings) and coded ritualistic movement. 

Velocity0: Stress-Test
On Sunday, November 27, the Pavilion will host the last performance from a series Trascode/Transmute with Charli Tapp and Velocity0.

Velocity0: Stress-Test will be introduced by Radio Raheem collaborator and renowned musicologist, musician and curator Luisa Santacesaria. She and Charli Tapp will be immersed in conversation providing context, insight and rationale around this very last performance. This conversation and the Stress-Test itself will become part of a special A/V broadcast on Radio Raheem in the days following the Finissage. 

Velocity0 is an installation by the artist Charli Tapp in which, driven by a series of computerized processes, 88 electromagnets hit the keybed of a beat-down touring Yamaha CP80 Grand Piano.

After Transcode/Transmute—a series of performances during which musician from Uzbekistan Abror Zufarov interacted in real-time with Velocity0’s algorithm, and THE PROGRAM—a dematerialized platform feeding Velocity0 inputs from various composers scattered around the globe, Velocity0: Stress-Test will push the installation to the boundaries of its physical limits.

For this last performance and experiment, Charli Tapp will be joined by one of THE PROGRAM’s participants, Furtherset (Tommaso Pandolfi), to submit Velocity0 to sonic landscapes beyond its technical capacities.