ARCO VOLTAICO
ARTESoazza
Curated by Luciano Fasciati
2025

ARCO VOLTAICO
Video 4K, 15’24’’, loop, 2 Channels sound
Sound: Micha Seidenberg 
Camera and editing: Loris Ciresa
Camera assistent: Gianfranco Bastianelli
Colour grading: Gianfranco Bastianelli

N°1
Wood, Neon light and Plexiglas
25 cm x 62 cm x 15 cm

With Arco Voltaico (Italian for “electric arc”), Valentina Pini presents a video work that explores the interior of the Misox hydroelectric power plant in Soazza, built inside the mountain between 1957 and 1961. Once a year, the turbines of the plant are examined for signs of material fatigue, such as cracks or notches – a procedure called magnetoscopy. The filmic and sonic investigation of this process forms the starting point of the work, created by Pini in collaboration with filmmaker Loris Ciresa and composer Micha Seidenberg.
Beginning in the dark exterior surroundings, the camera gradually ventures into the plant’s interior, pausing on significant elements of the facility: massive pressure pipes, a control room with video surveillance, a heavy-duty hook. The atmosphere feels cold, uncanny, and ominous.
After this visual survey of the facility, hands appear for the first time, performing the magnetoscopy. The camera records each step: lifting the casing, the preliminary inspection of the turbine, magnetization with a hand magnet, the application of fluorescent magnetic powder, and the subsequent examination of the surface for the slightest irregularities.
Micha Seidenberg complements the visual exploration with a sonic probing of the site: using microphones, he captured and partially processed the acoustic properties of the plant from various perspectives. Through a compositional interplay of proximity and distance, soundscapes emerge that render the materiality and inner life of the facility audible.

Excerpt from the text by Lisa Ginotti

Photos © Ralph Feiner