Stripsody. Cathy Berberian at the Virreina Centre de la Imatge.

Coinciding with the centenary of the birth of Cathy Berberian (Attleboro, Massachusetts, 1925 - Rome, 1983), this exhibition examines the genealogy of Stripsody, her opera prima as a composer and one of the most unclassifiable vocal creations of the twentieth century. Created with the complicity of Umberto Eco, the piece combines image, performance, and experimentation with words and language based on the use of onomatopoeias inspired by the iconography and language of comics.

"Music is the air I breathe and the planet I inhabit," wrote Cathy Berberian in a brief and beautiful text shortly before her death at the age of fifty-seven. It could be said, however, that Berberian always orbited far above the surface of this planet, envisioning other ways of understanding musical discipline and expanding its aesthetic and conceptual limits.

A key figure in European musical avant-garde, Berberian not only gave voice to some of the most important works by Luciano Berio, John Cage, or Sylvano Bussotti, among other composers, but also inspired these works and contributed decisively to their creation. In this sense, the powerful and prodigiously versatile voice of Berberian was always much more than a simple instrument at the service of interpretation.

Although Berberian's pioneering character was manifested long before the creation of Stripsody (1966), it was this piece, her opera prima as a composer, that marked the beginning of her own paramusical revolution. Coinciding with the centenary of Berberian's birth, this exhibition revisits the genesis and the particular artistic status of this work that combines image, performance, and vocal experimentation based on the use of onomatopoeias inspired by the iconography and language of comics.

The exhibition presents Stripsody as a unique cultural artifact belonging to a very particular historic moment and intellectual environment. Thus, it delves into the genealogy of the piece and explains the role that figures such as the semiotic legend Umberto Eco, the painter Eugenio Carmi, or the illustrator Roberto Zamarin, author of the logo of the formation Lotta Continua and of the workerist satirical comics starring Gasparazzo, played in the creation and development of this work.

It can be visited for free from Tuesday to Sunday and holidays from 11 am to 8 pm.