Porto-Saragozza (Bologna)

Vinyl records are often understood as containers of sound. Fabio Acca proposes the opposite: they are performative devices that produce experiences. Positioning the record within the field of Live Arts, the text explores listening as an embodied practice through which bodies, desires and identities take shape. Drawing on personal memories, performance theory and the history of artist records in Itlay, Acca argues that a record does not merely document an event, but reactivates it. From domestic turntables to experimental sound art, listening emerges as a live act where sound, imagination and presence continuously unfold.

When we talk about live arts, that is, “arts performed live,” what are we referring to? A story that began in the 1970s in Bologna (Italy), and completely changed the practices and conceptualization of contemporary art.