Manuela Barile is a vocal researcher and an interdisciplinary performer. Since she was very young, that she explores the expressive potential of her voice. Through systematic and constant experimentations, she developed a series of unique and personal vocal techniques inspired by the sounds of nature, animals and by “paralanguage”, meaning all the non-verbal vocal expressions that encircle the common verbal language. The passion for vocal sounds roused with the help of a canary, offered by her father when she was eight years old.
Her sound vocabulary was enriched through a series of studies and researches, started in ’99, around oriental and occidental vocal traditions, either made by herself or with teachers such as Amelia Cuni (Druphad) and Tran Quang Hai (Harmonic chant). She has also taken part in instant composition workshops held with Joelle Leandre, Barre Philips, Tristan Honsinger, Phil Minton, and Maggie Nicols.
She also expanded her artistic learning in the areas of theatre, attending drama courses in Bologna between 2001 and 2003 that made her start a personal research in mime and gestuality, and in visual arts, specially video and photography.
Until today she has worked with many artists of the European experimental scene (Mario Volpe, Gianni Lenoci, Amy Denio, Phil Minton, Tristan Honsinger, Marcello Magliocchi, Claudio Parodi, Ale Buzzi, Rinus Van Alebeek, Antonio Mainenti, Rui Costa, Paulo Raposo, Antez, Ernesto Rodrigues, Nilo Gallego, Pino Pipoli, Annamaria Ippolito, Paula Pinto, Marcello Maggi, Sandra Pires, etc.). Since 2003 she collaborates with Mario Volpe, an Italian interdisciplinary artist and curator of the Vel Net label, to put forth various musical and perfomative projects.
Presently her artistic research is based on a project-oriented work that combines vocal sounds with different media (video, photography, installations, performance, concert-performance, drawing, writing).
She now lives in Lisbon, collaborating with the sound artist Rui Costa and being one of the directors of Binaural, a Portuguese cultural organization that organizes multidisciplinary artistic events in collaboration with other European entities. Binaural also runs the annual program of “Nogs”, an artistic residency focused on the promotion of Media Arts in a rural context.
The artistic research of Manuela Barile is based on a project-oriented work that combines vocal sounds with different media (video, photography, installations, performance, concert-performance, drawing, writing). It is born from a subtle and probing investigation around the little things of the daily life apparently petty and insignificant.
Through the use of a simple language, made of symbols and metaphors, the artist creates situations where everything is continually put in discussion, highlighting the underlying sense of humour and paradox, the pleasure of risk and especially the desire of having fun without taking herself too seriously.
The voice that is present often belongs to the artist, performed live or through pre-recorded vocal compositions, in both cases without using any electronic manipulations.
The approach to vocality is ludic and spontaneous; it reflects her connection with nature, animals and the surrounding environment, from which she continuously finds inspiration. Through her sounds, the artist tries to give voice to distant echoes for which it is often difficult to find words and brings them to present with strong intensity. The sounds of the environment and the voices of others are used with the same purpose, and in some works they replace or make a counterpoint to her voice.
The silence, apparent stillness of things, is an important element of her research, either during the creation of the sound compositions or during the performances development: it invites with discretion to an intimate listening, but at the same time is open to external influences.