On 12 January, young artist Gianluca Iadema presented his work From, Maybe To: Prelude at the Conservatory of Trento. With this work, he won CAT B – SCREENED SOUND of the SISS Open Call. Born in 1996, Italian composer, visual artist and performer Gianluca Iadema works with music, video and installations. He holds a Master’s degree in Piano from the Conservatory of Brescia, a Bachelor’s degree in Composition from the Kunstuniversität Graz, a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Music from the IEM in Austria, and a Master’s degree with honours in Composition and Creative Practice from the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. His research explores the intersection between technology, architecture and philosophy, creating immersive audiovisual experiences that blend sound, image and light. In terms of sound, he reworks techno, glitch and pop using contemporary classical techniques. His work has been presented at international festivals and institutions.

When did you realise that audiovisual media was the path for you?

«Even before I began my studies in computer music and composition at the IEM in Graz, I have always felt a strong fascination for visual media, not only as video in the strict sense, but as the concretisation of a sonic way of thinking that could not be expressed through a single medium alone. Even in my earliest works there is always a narrative dimension, something we could describe as cinema without images. Later, my focus increasingly shifted towards making the relationship between sound and image structural, as one unified whole rather than an assembly of parts, while still keeping sound at the centre, what I would call music in the expanded field».

How long have you been involved in this artistic field?

«For about ten years. It has been a gradual process, starting from simple videos and evolving into transmedial compositions with a stronger conceptual and aesthetic scope than my early experiments, and extending across different contexts, both musical and visual, from music festivals to museums and galleries».

Is this the first competition you have entered, or have you participated in others?

«I have taken part in other competitions, though mostly within the video field or the compositional field, for example the international composition competition Franz Schubert and Modern Music in Graz».

Where does your inspiration come from, what is your creative philosophy?

«Inspiration always comes from practice, from doing, from consistency and concentration, and when it is not there, I keep working with focus until it emerges. Inspiration is simply a form of finding, sometimes consciously, sometimes by wandering, in the sense of moving without a precise destination, yet guided by curiosity and an obsession with detail».

What do you see in your future?

«Community, networks, human relationships, because this is a fundamental principle behind the creation of good, and sometimes great, art. In a time of dissociation and simultaneity between our real and digital selves, we need to start talking to each other again, to discuss, to question ourselves. We need to relearn how to find solutions with our minds, our abilities, and our passions. It is a slow process, but I do not know any art that has ever been made in a hurry. We need to learn again what time is and what it is worth, and to keep desiring».