The Fondazione Prada will present the exhibition “Art or Sound” at its Venetian venue of Ca’ Corner della Regina. Curated by Germano Celant, it will run from June 7 to November 3, 2014. The preview will be held from Wednesday June 4 to Friday June 6. Conceived as an investigation of the past and our present, the purpose of “Art or Sound” is to analyze the development of a productive and complex dialogue. It will consider the relationship between art and sound, iconic aspects of the musical instrument, the role of the artist-musician, and the areas in which the visual arts and music have come together and blurred. The exhibition will occupy the ground floor and two main floors of Ca’ Corner della Regina. For the first time since the Venetian palazzo was reopened to the public, the rooms on the second piano nobile will be used. This provides 1000 square meters of exhibition space that has been restored as part of the renovation of the building undertaken in 2011 by the Fondazione Prada. “Art or Sound” aims to emphasize the symmetrical and ambivalent link that exists between works of art and sound objects. It will offer a reinterpretation of the musical instrument and the way it can become a sculptural-visual entity and back again, in a continual reciprocal relationship of encroachment and inversion, a phenomenon seen since the 16th century. The project analyzes the overlap between the production of both art and sound, music and the visual arts, with the aim of highlighting the constant exchange between them, though eschewing unnecessary categorization. Organized on a historical basis, the exhibition will commence with musical instruments made from unusual and precious materials by Michele Antonio Grandi and Giovanni Battista Cassarini in the 17th century, and musical automata—complex artworks that combine the production of sounds with aesthetic values—created, for instance, by the Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz in the 18th century. It will continue with 19th-century examples of automated musical instruments and mechanical devices capable of giving visual expression to music through light and color. Research in the field of the synesthesia will be presented, along with experiments carried out by the historical avant-gardes, such as the celebrated Intonarumori (1913) created by Futurist artist Luigi Russolo, and some of Giacomo Balla’s objects.