Gritar, No Caer is a psychic landscape that generates paradoxes and phenomena, a sonic mirage and a proof-of-concept for electromagnetism and radio transmissions. It captures and compresses the space and vastness of a territory into the physical act of transmission, just as oral culture has resisted centuries of nomadic settlements and animal migrations in the mysterious Zone of Silence, a vast desert area located on the edge of the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve in Durango, Mexico, the subject of popular and pseudoscientific beliefs and the geographic-symbolic core of this experience.
During a research trip, Fonassi initiated a series of radio experiments in various areas of the desert using a pickup truck equipped with mobile listening, emission, and transmission units—a sound system, tape recorders, a shortwave transmitter/receiver, samplers, and so on—proceeding through configurations and implementations of radio bridges. Far from offering a literal description of the territory—or recording it, according to field recording practices—Gritar, No Caer proposes a form of active listening that seeks not to dominate the space, but rather to simultaneously contaminate and interrogate it. Fragments of electronic compositions, tape loops, interference and distortions, spoken words of legends and indigenous poetry, rhythmic cells, and the sounds of pre-Columbian aerophones constitute the sonic body used during the broadcast sessions. This solitary and oracular listening intertwines with natural magic practices and pseudoscientific speculations that permeate the area, giving rise to a liminal zone where sound becomes presence, signal, and invocation.
The imagery surrounding the Zone of Silence adds a further layer of meaning to this exploration: radio waves struggle to travel, mysterious lights cross the sky, and magnetic anomalies alter the psycho-geographical perception of the place. Some attribute these phenomena to meteorite strikes in the 1970s, others to military experiments or inexplicable geographic features. This territory, at the crossroads of science and mysticism, thus becomes an active field of study and research.
Fig. 1/5 – Gritar, No Caer, broadcasting settings at Zona del Silencio, 2025
The visual dimension of the project, developed in collaboration with argentine filmmaker Nata Failde, based in Mexico City, recounts the configurations, locations, and processes of these disturbances on the image plane through “visual frames.” The camera adopts a corporeal position directed at the landscape, generating a fragmented and structured visuality in which the physicality of the terrain becomes an image. The landscape’s uncertainty cannot be recorded in its entirety; rather, it appears segmented and latent. The video thus becomes a field of visual interference.
Gritar, No Caer is part of The Oracular Eavesdropper, one of the winning projects of Italian Council 13, promoted by the DGCC – MIC (Ministry of Culture), promoted by the Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde, in collaboration with Museion – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Bolzano), ESAD, École supérieure d’Art de Grenoble (Grenoble), and El Eco Experimental Museum (Mexico City). Curated by Matteo Binci. Cultural partners include Xing (Bologna) and qwatz, a contemporary art platform (Rome). Label: Miniera.
The project included a research and production period—organized in two different phases in early 2025—in Mexico, concluding with an audiovisual performance at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City. In spring 2026, the project will be presented in Copenhagen as a multichannel sound installation at Frederiksberg Square, as part of the Sound Wells program, before arriving in its final form at Museion in Bolzano: a permanent sound intervention, a radio bridge, an artificial echo that connects two areas of the city. This acoustic phenomenon will spark a discussion with local authorities on noise pollution regulations, activation times, volume thresholds, and emission locations.
Francesco Fonassi (b. 1986, Italy) is a sonic artist, independent researcher, musician, sound designer and producer.
Along twenty years he have been active in the sphere of sonic arts with electronic, acusmatic and environmental compositions, experimental radio projects, performances, sound field researches, listening sessions, sculptural prototypes, installations and audiovisuals/sensory spaces. His work have been featured in institutions, museums, festivals and independent spaces in Europe, Asia and America.
Since 2018 he co-runs and co-directs Spettro, an independent venue/research sound lab/radio platform/club in Brescia (Italy), part of a big network of sound artists and musicians across Europe and the independent label Villa Recordings since 2015.
As musician he’s part of several music project: Quasai (solo), Late Ninja (with drummer Anastasiia Marikutsa), Fonassi/Salogni (with the producer Marta Salogni), the electronic trio Chorus Abstracta (with Twoonky). He have been half of the experimental music duo Interlingua and FreakyFairyFluxFoundation.
Contacts:
M: fonassi.f@gmail.com
T: +39 3923626969