SEMI BALLA Davide Balula
14.09.25 – 15.12.25
Studioli is pleased to present Semi Balla, by French-Portuguese artist Davide Balula, featuring the artist’s young son Pierre Andrea Balula (b. 2020) and legendary composer Alvin Curran (b. 1938), a longtime Rome based pioneer of experimental and avant-garde music.
The works were produced directly on site over the course of just a few days, using what the artist found while visiting Rome, gathering weeds, melodies and twigs. Much like the form of recorded musical improvisation, the works progress through spontaneous gestures, echoing a spirit central to Curran’s musical practice.
The exhibition includes a jean jacket that conceals a small painting by the artist’s son, painted directly on the inner pocket, evoking the secretive gesture of a street vendor showing a selection of pinned watches inside their raincoat. A soundtrack recorded on a freshly revived answering machine, (found and repaired by the artist during his visit), captures Balula whistling rare songs by Curran. The musical notes were drawn from the musician’s own Fakebook, recently gifted to the artist.(Historically, fakebooks were contraband or bootleg collections of music scores to be played on the spot). A delicate mobile made from nearby weeds with a single popcorn kernel somehow magically indicating north.
A pair of worn boots found to harvest rainwater. Dirt and mushroom stains on a retrieved canvas harvested from the artist’s home town. Several clocks appear in different states and forms. Fax prints reveal the fascination shared by the Balulas, father, and child, with natural phenomena and other wild encounters.
For the opening, Davide Balula and Alvin Curran joined together in a live performance of songs and interruptions, extending the exhibition into an event of sound, play, and improvisation.