Frédéric Acquaviva (born 20 January 1967) is a French autodidact experimental composer and avant-gardesound artist living between Paris, Berlin and London who works with voices, instruments, electronics, film and body sounds.[1]
In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize for his music "ANTIPODES".
In 2022, "Seminal" was presented "Hors Competition" at Phonurgia Nova for the Sound Artwork of the year.
As the creator of "chronopolyphonic" installations, he works on the notion of "oxymoron" and in the intersection of instrumental or voice with computer editing since 1990, sometimes including video-texts or live streams, mixing a conceptual approach with physical body sounds.[4] His music pieces are thought from the compositional phase to the form of the final objet, as people could see at his retrospective sound exhibition『Frédéric Acquaviva, Music & Multiples Multiple Musics』at La Plaque Tournante, Berlin, in 2017 or with the first exhibition of his magazine CRU curated by Martha Willette Lewis at Institute Library, New Haven or the comprehensive exhibition of his editions at Librarie-Galerie Lecointre et Drouet in Paris in 2018.
The music critic Franck Mallet wrote a three-page essay:『Introducing Frédéric Acquaviva』in art magazine Art Press no. 393, Paris, October 2012 [5] and in 2018 Yoann Sarrat published a special issue of his magazine "Freeing (Our Bodies) #2" on the music of Frédéric Acquaviva with 39 contributions including Henri Chopin, Maurice Lemaître, Dorothy Iannone, ORLAN, Jacques Lizène, Michel Giroud Jean-François Bory, Philip Corner, Jean-Baptiste Favory, Bernard Heidsieck, Tom Johnson, Esther Ferrer...[6]
He received a command from the French Ministry of Culture in 1998, from ACR (France Culture) in 1999 and 2018, Motus/Palais de Tokyo in 2009 and has been in composing residency at CEIIDA (Monterrey, Mexico, 2023), Emily Harvey Foundation Venice (2009, 2011 and 2016),[7] EMS studios in Stockholm (2015 and 2019) and also won the Beinecke Fellowship Yale University USA (2012 and 2017),[8] as well as have been curating since 2003 more than 40 exhibitions on avant-garde art and poetry (Gil J Wolman and Isidore Isou among others) in museums such as Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Serralves, Museo Reina Sofia. In June 2019 Acquaviva was awarded the Price for Best Contemporary Art Book of the Year with his first ever monograph on Isidore Isou's artworks (Editions du Griffon) at FILAF.
With voice-artist and mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg, he founded the artist and experimental music space La Plaque Tournante[9] in Berlin in 2014, which is based on AcquAvivArchives, consisting of a massive archive of Lettrist and experimental documents or artworks from the mid 20th century to the present day, alongside Acquaviva's own music archive.
La Plaque Tournante has received the Berlin Senate Prize in 2017 for one of the best artist spaces, after 12 exhibitions.
[10] He also runs the CD-DVD-Web Site-Magazine CRU (present in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; MACBA, Barcelona; Fondazione Bonotto, Italy).[11]
Acquaviva has also published more than 100 publications,[12] and apart his own musical work and multiples (published by Al Dante or Les Presses du Réel),[13] many artist books spanning Lettrism, Body and Bio art, Sonic art and composers under the labels Casus Belli, Editions AcquAvivA, £@B and B@£.
Coma (1991–1992 / rev. 1995–1996), text Pierre Guyotat, for voice, computer and 16 electric guitars
Sens Unique(s) (1994–1995), hörspiel for voices, 4 violins, 4 electric guitars and sampler
K. Requiem (1993–1999), text F. J. Ossang [fr], for voices, electronic and ensemble
Tri (2000), chronopolyphonic sound installation
Oreilles Vides (2000), for voice-computer
Et.. et... et (1999/ rev. 2003), for voice, electronic and ensembles
L'Infra Cantate (1998 / rev. 2004), for voice, accordion, violin and electronic
X, 4, 3 (2006), for 3 BDSM sound bodies and electronic
Musique Acataleptique (2007), text JL Parant, for voice, house field recordings and electronic
Exercice Spirituel (2007), for any sound
4 Etudes Animales (2008), for toilet seat and dog
Musique Elastique (2009), for elastic and Joël Hubaut
Ledisque (2009), for voice
Edisquel (2009), for harpischord
Disquele (2009), for electronics
Isqueled (2009), for voice and harpsichord
Squeledi (2009), for voice and electronics
Queledisc (2009), for harpsichord and electronics
Uelediscq (2009), for voice, harpsichord and electronics
Eledisq (2009–2010), for voice, harpsichord and electronics
Le Disque (2009–2010), for voice, harpsichord, electronics and screens
{...} (2010), for ensemble of ensembles in extension and live streaming
Musiques Convergentes (2000–2017), for various media and ensembles
Musique Pédagogique (2011), for and against any audience
Aatie-Fragment (2010–2011), for mezzo-soprano, variable ensemble and video
Aatie (2010–2011), for mezzo-soprano, variable ensemble and video
Musique Démotique (2011), for a mobile transmitter
Musique Hiératique (2011), for a mobile transmitter
Musique Cabalistique (2012), for a fixed receptor
Loré Ipsum (2011–2012), for mezzo-soprano(s) and dead electronics
Musique Antiparaskevidekatriaphobique et Antitriskaidekaphobique (2013), for a specific date
Musique Athlétique (2014), for 2 break (core) dancers and mobile sound sources
Self-Portrait Music (2015), for any instrument
Musique Algorithmique (2015), for advertising demonstrator
Paradoxical Sleep Music (2015), for voice or video
Kiss Music (2015), for 2 voices
Du Singe au Porc (2015), for 258 french sound sources and voice
Ape to Pig (2015–2017), for 258 french sound sources, voice and videotext
Musique Thérapeutique (2016), for curator and ill audience
The 120 Day of Musica (2015–2017), for variable instrumentation
mess (2016), for a voice artist
MESS (2015–2017), for mezzo, mouths, skins, buchla and videotext
£pØ@n®diØ$n (2018), concerto for town and voice
deadline (2019), for voice and Jean-François Bory
ANTIPODES (2019), for the voices of Joël Hubaut (+ texts), Dorothy Iannone, Loré Lixenberg; dead electronics and video
Seminal (2020-2021), for speakerine (ORLAN), vocal quartet (Joan La Barbara, Loré Lixenberg, Wills Morgan, Jacques Lizène), orchestra (124 players) and dead electronics
Musique Posthume (2021), for a performer and dead electronics
Hyperosmic Music (2023), for dispositive
No Soy Un Robot (2023), for countertenor, parrots, different voices and dead electronics
Demoliciones / Mariachi (2023), 4 songs for 7 mariachis
