San Marino (Republic of)

Mark Francis’ painting stimulates a simultaneous experience of vision and sound through works that are poised between abstraction and visual memory figuration. The allusion to acoustic sensations, evoked by their titles and in the vibrations of colour, arouses a synaesthetic, multisensory experience that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers, connecting us to our deepest emotions.

The title Sea of Sound evokes a soundscape and speaks to the full breadth of sensory frequencies we experience, and which we intercept and translate into personal experiences through the filter of emotion. Sounds define an environment, a culture. We must constantly connect with the continuous flow of the world’s languages and noises, or risk our individual identity being lost in its waves.

This fully reflects the title of the Biennale, In Minor Keys, an expression borrowed from music with a low-pitched performance. This concept shifts from the purely musical realm to a broader human need to reconnect with the innermost frequencies of the soul, amplifying the call to listen to the faintest of voices – those beyond dominant narrative – in search of a new balance and harmony.