Dardust Presents "SommersiVo" Installation for 2026 VENICE ART BIENNALE, New Track "SommersiVo" OUT NOW

Dardust — one of the most innovative pianists and composers of Italy's new generation — inaugurated SommersiVo at the Venice Pavilion last Friday. The immersive sound installation premieres as part of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (9 May – 22 November 2026), where Dardust has composed an original new work for Note persistenti, the exhibition project curated by Giovanna Zabotti. To coincide with the opening on 8 May, the composition has been released on all digital platforms. Listen HERE.

Alongside the Biennale exhibition, Dardust will bring his Urban Impressionism Tour (Vivo Concerti) across Italy and Europe, with upcoming dates in Milan (Teatro San Babila, May 20–21), Lisbon (Centro Cultural de Belém, May 23), Paris (New Morning, May 26), and London (Courtyard Studio, May 27). Tickets are available HERE

Suspended, submerged, sounding. Realised in collaboration with set designer Paolo Fantin and with the technological support of H-Farm and Cisco, the installation recreates an underwater environment in which a self-playing piano — as if held beneath the surface — continues to sound even in the artist's absence, returning the echo of a performance recorded and impressed into the mechanics of the keys. Every 55 minutes, the instrument activates autonomously, giving life to a composition that regenerates over time: an emotional reverberation that crosses the space and recalls the very identity of Venice, a city suspended between the visible and the submerged, between presence and memory.

The work also unfolds as an interactive experience: visitors are invited to leave a thought, which is processed by an artificial intelligence system and translated into sound. Each contribution corresponds to an emotion, and each emotion to one of the micro-themes recorded by Dardust, which the piano returns in real time, offering visitors an experience that is different and unrepeatable on every visit.

The concept of emotional reverberation deepens here, as individual experience expands into a collective performance in continuous evolution. Venice itself becomes a dynamic sonic organism, while the visitor becomes an active part of the creative process.

“SommersiVo was born from the idea that some sounds exist only beneath the surface. Venice is a city that lives on two levels: the visible one, and the submerged one — made of memory, stratifications and suspended time. Music becomes an immersion in this invisible space, where every note becomes an echo and continues to vibrate even when it seems to vanish. In dialogue with Padiglione Venezia, my work moves through the deepest dimension of the city, attempting to translate it into sound: a place where past and present merge, and where what we have been does not disappear but remains, submerged and alive. It is here that the most subversive gesture of sound reveals itself: to continue to exist as memory, beyond time and space,” says Dardust.

Dardust has recently released his new EP “We Only Love Spaces and Doors”, following his stunning performance at the Opening Ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games. Watch HERE and listen to “We Only Love Spaces and Doors” HERE