On Thursday, July 31st, 2008, from 6 to 9PM, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hosts a night of contemporary art and music featuring a DJ Concert by Brooklyn-based Fa Ventilato. Inspired by the museum’s atmospheric courtyard, and the vibe of the audience, Ventilato will spin a musical mix of different artists and sounds to create a unique and spontaneous experience for visitors, layering tracks into a soundtrack reflective of the evening and the unique setting. Fa Ventilato works with a diverse range of styles when performing, always keeping in mind his environment and tailoring his music to reflect his immediate surroundings.

His work has been heralded as “magical,” “mesmerizing,” “hypnotic,” and “meditative.” This concert will be his first performance at the Gardner Museum. Taking advantage of the splendor and atmospheric beauty of the Gardner Museum at dusk, the result will be an intimate and unrehearsed performance that captures the spirit of the evening and the stylish mood of the Gardner after hours.

“Gardner Summer Night” is presented as part of the contemporary exhibition Luisa Rabbia: Travels with Isabella, Travel Scrapbooks 1883/2008, for which Fa composed the music. “At one point in Luisa Rabbia’s digital video ghostly hands move gently down the stoney slope; they are the hands of Fa Ventilato. It is his music making which runs a rhythmic pulse through the film so that it continues under its own momentum and has a life of its own,” says Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

“I like to deal with music that has been already recorded. I like to focus on stuff that has already been done by someone who has put his soul, his spirit in it and then I get inspired by it. Manipulating it is like making a collage using little tiny pieces of sound and motives merged into a new contemporary piece,” says Ventilato.

The “Gardner Summer Night” celebration opens with a DJ and VJ performance by popular 24- year-old, Cambridgebased DJ Die Young, with a pair of ICA Teen VJs from the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s Fast Forward video production program. DJ Die Young and the ICA VJs will spin their own mix of music paired with a live video remix of the evening’s revelers.

Guests can also join writer and critic Mario Diacono at 7PM in the museum’s special exhibition gallery for a gallery talk about Brooklyn-based artist Luisa Rabbia’s new contemporary video exhibition - inspired by Isabella Gardner’s 1883 travels throughout China – and Fa Ventilato’s musical score, built exclusively using live recordings from the Gardner’s free classical music podcast “The Concert.” On Ventilato’s process, artist Luisa Rabbia says: “Fa Ventilato uses music in his work as a very broad material to explore in all its possibilities. Sometimes he even writes things down with music instead of using words. Other times he cuts and pastes and stretches sounds as if he were working with a collage.”

Ventilato is a regular musical collaborator for installations by international artists including Luisa Rabbia, Monika Bravo, and Moataz Nazar. Travels with Isabella Rabbia and Ventilato’s sixth collaboration. -- www.gardnermuseum.org