Vibrating Together. Art Beyond the Senses

Alessandro Moni

There are experiences that aren’t just heard — they are felt. Experiences that don’t pass only through the eyes or ears, but through the skin, the bones, the heart. On Wednesday, June 11, at MAN, we hosted one of them.

Sub_Bar is a project that breaks boundaries. Artist Francesco Spaggiari brought a performative installation to Nuoro in which sound transforms into vibration, making it accessible even to those who cannot hear. It was an event that challenges us to rethink what it truly means to communicate, perceive, and share. A radical gesture that redefines the idea of accessibility, urging us to reconsider the limits (and privileges) of how we engage with art and music.

At the core of the performance, low-frequency subwoofers turned music into something tangible — something to feel with the entire body. Together with both deaf and hearing individuals, we experienced an immersive moment where language reinvented itself: a bridge between often-separated worlds, a space of genuine — not rhetorical — inclusion. No perceptual hierarchy, just an experience to inhabit fully, with every part of oneself. At a time when exclusion often operates through language — written, spoken, sonic — this was a concrete, sensory, and shared response. A practice of alliance.

It’s no coincidence that this experience takes place at a time when many cultural institutions, even internationally, are discussing the idea of the “Open Museum” as a democratic space. How do we ensure the right to cultural participation? Who are we truly addressing when we communicate? Which bodies, languages, and sensitivities do we make visible — and which do we leave unseen?

Because art, if it is truly public, must be able to reach anyone. Even — and especially — those who don’t experience it the way we expect.