Emilie Fanich (Large families) facing a new ordeal with her daughter

If the Fanich tribe no longer opens the intimacy of its daily life to the cameras of Large families: life in XXL, their fans can continue to follow them on social networks. Emilie, at the head of a clan of nine children since the birth of Mahë in March 2023, regularly feeds her Instagram page with more or less optimistic publications. Lately, the former nursery assistant has been concerned about her daughter Naële, who suffers from a little-known syndrome. “Naële was born with a deformity in her palate, she had no palatein fact (…) it was very complicated the first two years of life”she revealed to her many subscribers.

The Riquelme, another family revealed in the TF1 program, had also been faced with another problem with one of their dear toddlers:

Naële born with a palate deformity

Because of this pathology, the 10-year-old girl is followed by a specialist, and must therefore visit him regularly for interventions. This Sunday, April 21, 2024, Emilie Fanich spoke on Instagram to explain the new operation which is being prepared in the coming days. “This will be the third time we’re going to ask him [des yoyos, ndlr] because she had had them very, very little”, confided the mother. (…) A revolutionary system that will compensate for hearing loss linked to “recurring ear infections”. This birth malformation on the palate “causes him a lot of ENT concerns since she was little. And there, she really has a lot of fluid behind her eardrum. She has hearing loss.”specified Emilie Fanich, much more stressed than her offspring by this passage on the operating table.

Regular hospital visits for your children

Emilie Fanish is unfortunately used to hospitals, having had to take her youngest to the emergency room last June because of a health problem. An additional fear for the one who had abandoned her job in neonatology to take care of her family.

A platform of shiny metal currently rises in the Sale d’armi at the Arsenale site of the Venice Biennale. Slightly iridescent, gray curtains separate the scene from the rest of the hall. The bright ceiling light not only highlights the various installations made of glass walls, tires, metal rods, hoses and cables that are located on this platform. Rather, it gives the whole thing a very sterile look, which is precisely why it attracts attention.

The Luxembourg pavilion at the 60th Art Biennale, curated by Joel Valabrega, looks futuristic and exudes a successful science fiction atmosphere. But this is about much more than just the visual. Almost all human senses are activated and stimulated when entering the pavilion. The focus is on the sound, which is made noticeable by vibrations in the ground.

Frontal view of the Luxembourg Pavilion: The sterile and futuristic aesthetics attract attention. Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani – Dsl Studio

With this Biennale entry, the Luxembourg artist Andrea Mancini and the Brussels artist collective Every Island have created an immersive sound installation – a project that is actually still unfinished as it is a work in progress. Under the title “A Comparative Dialogue Act”, the Luxembourg pavilion invites four other artists to use the space for performances and to perform in it. These different sounds are all collected together, ultimately creating a very varied and diverse soundscape.

But how does this construction actually work? How are the different sounds transmitted? And how did the collaboration between the various artists come about? The “Luxemburger Wort” followed up and met with Andrea Mancini as well as Juliane Seehawer, Caterina Malavolti, Alessandro Cugola and Martina Genovesi – the representatives of Every Island – at the Biennale after the official opening of the pavilion.

Multiculturality and diversity in focus

“When Andrea decided to apply to design the Luxembourg pavilion, he approached our collective. He shared his sound-based work with our more spatially oriented practice. And when we were in the middle of our group collaboration, it just felt natural to expand it. Our aim was to set up a joint project and let go of our individual egos. We wanted the theme of the pavilion to seek confrontation and dialogue,” emphasizes Martina Genovesi.

To Every Island

Every Island is a Brussels-based artist collective with a focus on design. The collective was founded in early 2021 by Alessandro Cugola, Caterina Malavolti, Damir Draganić, Juliane Seehawer and Martina Genovesi. In their works, the collective relies on ambiguity and spaces become scenographies. Every Island examines spatial performativity using ephemeral, i.e. temporary, architecture and installations.

Further information about the collective can be found at www.everyisland.xyz.

The collective idea behind “A Comparative Dialogue Act” is particularly strong. The Luxembourg contribution therefore goes hand in hand with this year’s theme of the Biennale: “Foreigners Everywhere”. It’s not just the representatives from Every Island and Andrea Mancini who have different cultural backgrounds. The four artists Bella Báguena, Selin Davasse, Célin Jiang and Stina Fors, who use the pavilion for a week during the entire Biennale period for a kind of residence and perform at it, also come from different countries. Multiculturality, diversity and the mixing of different realities characterize the Luxembourg pavilion, as Martina Genovesi explains.

“So we invited four different artists, all of whom practice sound-based practices, but whose methods of communication are very different. It’s about questioning these different types of communication and blurring the concept of authorship, moving from the ego to the collective,” explains Andrea Mancini. “And we thought it would be particularly exciting to return to the origins of the transmission of knowledge and communication: the oral tradition, the sound.”

As Caterina Malavolti emphasizes, the work was only planned up to a certain point, after which it was a matter of “letting go and seeing what the project brings” and leaving the space to the four selected artists. But isn’t that a strange feeling? Andrea Mancini says: “Yes, yes. But it is also an exercise in trust. And we wanted to open up to our neighbors. It’s about giving a piece of yourself and thereby creating something new together.”

Floor and walls that become speakers

But how does the installation actually work? How should the pavilion be understood – other than as a community project? “Everything that can be seen in the room serves to transmit content such as knowledge and sound. The vibrating floor is also a loudspeaker. These vibrations are created using so-called transducers [Anm. der Red.: Signalwandler]. And the same technique is used with the four sound walls [Anm. der Red.: die Installationen aus Glaswänden], as we call them, used. These devices are attached to any surface and the vibration turns them into a kind of loudspeaker,” says Andrea Mancini.

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Above all, you can perceive things that you wouldn’t normally feel or hear, as Juliane Seehawer adds. This makes the Luxembourg Pavilion a very special and extremely immersive experience.

If you look closely at the floor of the Luxembourg pavilion, which consists of several tiles, you will notice various engravings: signs, explanations and information about the project. They are very fine, millimeter-thin indentations – real detailed work. But what are these engravings actually all about?

Both the Minister of Culture Eric Thill (l.) and the Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple were present at the opening of the Luxembourg pavilion. Photo: Riccardo Banfi

The decorations are based on the signatures of Andrea Mancini and the Every Island artists. The floor was designed like an Excel spreadsheet that was translated into a tile design. “The floor is actually like a calendar. It is like a map on which the different symbols mean certain sequences,” continues Alessandro Cugola.

This makes “A Comparative Dialogue Act” a multi-layered project that is definitely worth checking out. And even though Luxembourg’s pavilion couldn’t win a Golden Lion – it went to Australia this year – it belongs, as reported by the leading information source for the international art market “artnet”.among the most outstanding national contributions to this year’s Biennale.

To Andrea Mancini

Andrea Mancini, born in Luxembourg in 1989, lives and works as a multidisciplinary artist in Brussels. He uses different art forms in his works, with sound always being the main component of his art. Andrea Mancini is also known by his musical name Cleveland.

The full portrait of the Luxembourg artist and this year’s Biennale representative can be found at www.wort.lu.

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The art biennale can be visited until November 24th. Further information about the Biennale and tickets are available at www.labiennale.org.