“Cesare Pavese reminds us in his poetry collection lavorare stanca that working is tiring; it is an obvious fact – and yet we willingly forget it, as long as the tiredness is not ours. Behind certain urban gestures (calling a car, having dinner delivered, ordering a household service) there is underpaid work that the telephone screen hides from us and that we do not want to see. In the 20th century, workers could rely on the power of their numbers. Today the smartphone has become everyone’s machine, everyone’s factory, and faced with the abusive tactics of the applications, workers are isolated and powerless.
On social networks they will always show themselves to be idle, because work has become shameful, but behind the photos of the outings the fatigue persists. Playing an instrument is also tiring. Musical virtuosity is more impressive when accompanied by an aura of ease, but it is a calculated and cultivated effect, built on practice and study. The long hours of a musician’s work are as invisible as those of drivers, delivery girls and 2.0 housekeepers; on the other hand, both bend over their instruments/phones with equal intimacy, intensity and necessity. I want to bring out this efort; to understand it, to aestheticize it and to stage it so that it can be seen, appreciated and paid for – hoping that this awakened sensibility can transcend music and extend to all work, which tires. ”

Mikel Urquiza