From Sunday 19 March to Sunday 30 April 2017, Spazio Officina di Chiasso (Switzerland), adjacent to the max museum, is hosting an exhibition which, on the occasion of the centenary of the first jazz recording on vinyl record (1917), presents covers and posters made by graphics and artists of international caliber, to tell a new era and one of the major cultural contributions of the twentieth century for its extemporaneousness. The exhibition is part of the 2016-2017 season of the Centro Culturale Chiasso, which is declined in the name of "creativity"
One hundred years after the first jazz recording on vinyl, the exhibition celebrates a visual heritage of great vivacity through covers, posters, playbills, postcards and book covers. To elaborate the graphic design of covers and posters, refined and innovative in their chromatic and compositional solutions, internationally renowned graphic designers and artists were involved: from Josef Albers to Max Huber, from Andy Warhol to Guido Crepax.
The exhibition – curated by Luca Cerchiari, musicologist, music critic and professor of the history and aesthetics of jazz at the IULM University of Milan, and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, director of the max museum and of Spazio Officina in Chiasso – allows us to reconstruct the visual history of a musical and social phenomenon through graphics and a real passion of many artists.
The exhibition presents album covers, posters that are recognized as real works of art for their beauty, posters, postcards, book covers, but also albums, photographic reports of historical moments and encounters in the history of jazz and its characters, splendid gramophones from the late 1800s and 1900s (also from the famous record company "His Master's Voice"), rare musical instruments, scores and editions that have become famous, listening points and film clips , such as the famous "The Jazz Singer", a cult film from 1927 which marks the birth of sound cinema.
The jazz covers and posters involved graphic designers and artists of great incisiveness, from Josef Albers to Max Huber, from Andy Warhol to Guido Crepax, who proposed refined and innovative chromatic and compositional solutions.
The exhibition and the catalog published by Skira (2017, bilingual, Italian/English) present important materials from private and public collections, such as the Swiss National Sound Archives. The exhibition is promoted in partnership with the IULM University and the Master's course in music publishing and production, the ICBSA-Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage / State Discotheque of Rome and Aereostella.
It is made possible thanks to the Department of Education and Cultural Activities of the Municipality of Chiasso, with the support of the Republic and Canton of Ticino-Swisslos Fund and AGE SA, and UBS as main sponsor.
2017 also marks the 16th edition of the Chiasso Culture and Jazz Music Festival, promoted by the Cinema Teatro, scheduled from Thursday 18 March to Saturday 18 March. To celebrate the anniversary and the synergy with the exhibition spaces of the Chiasso Cultural Center, the exhibition at Spazio Officina will be inaugurated on Saturday 18.00 March at 20.30, while the third and last evening of the Festival is scheduled at XNUMX at the Cinema Teatro.
