For years, SciArt has brought science and art into dialogue through exhibitions, talks, and encounters with artists and researchers, inviting the public to look at reality from new perspectives. This time the project comes to Lugano with Triton, by Invernomuto, a device that listens to a living ecosystem and translates its signals into sound and light.
Triton, the performance
Triton is a cross-media project by the duo Invernomuto, weaving together sculpture, sound, and narrative through collaborations, performances, and a listening platform. At its core is a sensitive, portable device that translates data from a living ecosystem into sound and light, generating an ever-evolving composition.
It all begins with a real colony of newts living in two ancient pools carved into the rock at Pietra Perduca, in Val Trebbia. In local folklore these animals have been called "tritons" for generations, and it is from this ecosystem that the device gathers its signals: monitoring water level, light, and the animals' movements, translating them into sound and light patterns. Triton thus acts both as an instrument and as an organism, in a composition that evolves alongside the environment it observes.
The project was commissioned by Haus der Kunst München and is supported by Italian Council 2024, the program of the Italian Ministry of Culture for the international promotion of contemporary Italian art.
Anyone can contribute to Triton through Invernomuto's website, by sending a sound recorded with a phone or computer and receiving in return an audio file generated by the project.
Invernomuto
Invernomuto is the name under which Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi have worked together since 2003.
Based in Milan, they develop long-term research projects that unfold across time and space, generating interconnected cycles of work. Recent projects have been presented at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2026); SALTS, Basel; e-flux, New York; Performa, New York; Fondazione Prada, Milan; GAMeC, Bergamo (2025); Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich; and Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2024).
Their work has also been presented at the 58th Venice Biennale; Tate, London; Liverpool Biennial 2021; Manifesta 12, Palermo; Pompeii Commitment; 58th October Salon-Belgrade Biennial; Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz; Villa Medici, Rome; CCS Bard, New York; Alserkal Avenue, Dubai; Nuit Blanche 2017, Paris; Museion, Bolzano; OGR, Turin; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; MAXXI, Rome; MACRO, Rome; PAC, Milan; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; HangarBicocca, Milan; No Fun Fest 2009, New York; and the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale.
What is SciArt?
SciArt is an IBSA Foundation project born to foster cross-pollination between scientific and artistic disciplines and to offer the community new keys for interpreting today's world.
Science and the arts have always coexisted across time and space. Though with different methodologies and aims, artists and scientists alike observe the world around them, opening up new perspectives, interpretations, and meanings.
Through various event formats and digital products, SciArt focuses on artistic creations that have been transformed through interaction with scientists, discoveries, and research institutes. Audiences can engage with these proposals and hear, directly from artists and scientists, how such different realities influence one another.
The project fits perfectly within the Foundation's mission, which since 2012 has been committed to spreading authoritative scientific culture, sharing principles and knowledge in accessible language, and raising awareness on topics related to science, culture, and individual wellbeing.
