Meditation on global wool trade and its supply chain is a music performance by Turin based producer Andrea Perini, recorded last July 24th in the glass pavilion of Villa Romana.
Andrea Perini and experimental guitarist Federico Uffreduzzi performed a new composition based on artist Evi Olde Rikkert's field recordings made during her shepherding experience in the Italian Alps. Slowly they transformed the farm-techno-beats of milking machines and samples of cow-bells and creeks reminiscent of lush Alpine meadows into hypnotising sounds for meditating on woolen carpets.
Please wear your headphones, lay down or seat comfortably and enjoy the sound bath/soundtrack which blends together all the steps of the wool supply chain.
Meditation on global wool trade and its supply chain
The series of carpets on view in the glass pavilion of Villa Romana, last July 2021, are the final stage of a research project into the supply chain of wool by artist Evi Olde Rikkert. At the start of the project, she collaborated with philosopher Giovanni Pietracaprina and they joined shepherd Armando Zocchi during a Transumanza / Transhumance in Valtellina (IT) to +2000m height with a flock of 70 sheep, 30 young cows and 15 mature cows. The shepherding experience was followed by making connections with Italy’s remaining textile production districts of Biella and Bergamo for the transformation of the raw wool into yarn.
In the frame of Villa Romana's Scuola Popolare, different perspectives on this experience have been touched upon, during three Meditations hosted in the pavilion. Meditation one was a conversation and demonstration on the trade and sorting of European sheep wool by Nigel Thompson, founder of Biella the Wool Company. Meditation two was a conversation and demonstration by Florence-based antique rug expert Alberto Boralevi. The third Meditation is the live music performance by producer Andrea Perini you can now listen here on Radio Papesse.
Evi Olde Rikkert lives and works between the Netherlands and Italy. She holds an MFA in Site Specific art (InSitu) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (BE) and a BA in Fashion Design from Polimoda in Florence (IT). She previously collaborated with the Phoebus Foundation textile collection (2019, Antwerp, BE) and received a grant from the Mondriaan Fund NL (2020-2021).
