Nest of Silence

by Caterina Barbieri
sound design in collaboration with Thierry Coduys, Ruben Spini
curated and produced by La Biennale di Venezia

Italian Pavilion, Expo 2025
Osaka, 16 April > 13 October 2025

Nest of Silence is a multi-channel sound installation conceived by the Italian composer Caterina Barbieri for the garden of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. The work accompanies the visitors through an immersive listening experience, in which synthesis, voice and birdsong blend to explore the relationship of creative symbiosis between the machinic and the organic.

The installation reflects Caterina Barbieri’s personal conception of music, according to which elements of composition such as the repetition and permutation of patterns induce states of trance, altered consciousness and emotional intensity in the listener. Similarly, Nest of Silence invites the listener to experience a process of perceptive metamorphosis, in which deep listening and the interconnection between human, machine and nature are revealed to be essential conditions for finding new ways of coexisting in the ideal city of the future – a compelling theme of the Italian Pavilion.

As the visitor moves forward along the path, the hypnotic crystalline patterns characteristic of the Italian artist’s experimental composition deconstruct as they engage in a dialogue with the vocal and field recordings chosen specifically for the context of the garden: in addition to the voice, the rustling of the wind, the birdsong and fluttering of wings respond to the intricate sequences of the analog modular synthesis that defines Caterina Barbieri’s instrumental practice. This process of timbral hybridisation leads into a progressive rarefaction of the musical texture, drawing the visitors’ attention to the surrounding space, to its noises and silences, dissolving the boundaries between the electronic language and the natural environment.

“In this work, I was inspired by silence as a place of fertility and the regeneration of meanings. In this nest of silence, the music of the world is born, and invites us to the contemplation of impermanence and emptiness. Sound is born and dies in silence, nurturing the vital need for a negotiation between presence and absence, dissolution and rebirth”, writes Caterina Barbieri.

Visitors are invited to walk along this path at their own pace, opening themselves to a prolonged immersive listening experience, in which the sound is perceived not merely as an aesthetic phenomenon, but as a living organism that can change our perception of time and space in relation to the natural and technological context. In this sense, Nest of Silence reflects Caterina Barbieri’s musical aesthetics, in which the repetition of sound is not mere iteration but an agent of perceptual change and evolution.

The technical design of the installation and its multi-channel arrangement was developed with French sound designer Thierry Coduys. The conceptualisation of the work was developed in collaboration with the Italian multidisciplinary artist Ruben Spini. The recordings of the birds were made by English field recorder Sarah Keirle.