Common Time 2026

Sound experiments, reflections, and in-depth explorations of the BHMF exhibitions at MAD Murate Art District, in collaboration with Fango Radio

Common Time 2026 is a collective radio broadcast created by the students of the Master’s program in Transcultural Mediation of Heritage and the Contemporary: Pathways for Inclusive Audience Engagement, organized by Fondazione MUS.E and MAD Murate Art District in collaboration with the Istituto per l’Arte e il Restauro – Palazzo Spinelli. The project emerged from a workshop led by Fango Radio, Podcasting: Telling Stories of Art and Culture, based on listening, sound writing, and collective production developed during the Master’s program.

During the sessions, participants worked on radio languages, recording and editing techniques, writing for listening, and narrative construction, with the aim of transforming artistic and curatorial content into accessible and shareable sound forms. The result is a series of podcasts that explore, interpret, and expand the Black History Month Florence exhibitions hosted at MAD from February 12 to April 12, 2026: Triplet Consciousness by Heather Hart, Black Body, Ancient City by T.J. Dedeaux Norris, and The Angel in the Cell by William Demby.

The tracks combine different formats—interviews, soundscapes, narratives, improvisations, and in-depth features—reflecting the idea that radio languages are not closed categories but hybrid and permeable narrative tools. The broadcast does not simply document the exhibitions: it extends and amplifies them across time and space, inviting listening before, during, or after the visit, and transforming the exhibition experience into an open sound archive.

The podcast, commissioned by MAD Murate Art District, was produced as part of the PN Metro Murate Art District program: culture as a driver of recovery.

Invitation to Common Time

This prologue is an invitation to visit the exhibitions hosted at MAD and created for the 11th edition of Black History Month Florence — therecoveryplanfoundation.org — in collaboration with the American Academy in Rome.
In dialogue with the theme Common Time/Tempo Comune, which runs through this edition of BHMF, the three exhibitions activate “a space in which the common, the ordinary, becomes what destabilizes and reshapes historically imposed cycles and conditions.” Taken together, the exhibitions emerge as reflections, practices, and invitations to critique, with the aim of engaging with underrepresented narratives and silenced archives.
The choice to record the prologue in different languages promotes a transcultural approach as the common thread of the entire broadcast and reflects the identities of the podcast’s project group.

Curated by the entire COMMON TIME 2026 broadcast project group with Fango Radio.

Triplet Consciousness – Interview with Heather Hart

Heather Hart is an American visual artist and Roman Price Fellow (2025–2026) at the American Academy in Rome. Her work revolves around architecture as a cultural, political, and relational practice. This interview introduces her artistic research and the installation Triplet Consciousness, exhibited in the Anna Banti room at MAD.

Curated by Alice Galgani, Manuel Panìco, Ricardo Villani, Yelena Palestino, and Giorgia Incerpi.

Sound Walk

This sound piece is a field recording experiment inspired by the work and installation Triplet Consciousness by Heather Hart. A “walk” constructed through domestic sounds that invites listeners to experience and imagine spaces and architectures. Listening replaces looking, opening up different perceptual possibilities.

Curated by Alice Galgani, Manuel Panìco, Ricardo Villani, Yelena Palestino, and Giorgia Incerpi.

Black Body, Ancient City – Interview with T.J. Dedeaux Norris

J. Dedeaux Norris is an American artist, educator, and scholar, Roman Price Fellow (2025/2026) at the American Academy in Rome. In this first part of the interview, the artist explores the techniques and materials used for the exhibition Black Body, Ancient City, currently on view at the MAD. Her work revolves around a reflection that engages themes such as the body, identity, and architecture.

Curated by Chiara Carratù, Lucrezia Gelardo, Paula Iruela, Aleksandra Lisek, Giulia Tamburini, Mariaurora Terlizzi.

Emergence Room – Interview with T.J. Dedeaux Norris

J. Dedeaux Norris focuses on her project Emergence Room, a podcast conceived as a space of real presence and listening. Through the chosen format, the artist creates a safe environment for sharing in which a new way of listening to one another can emerge through collective experience.

Curated by Chiara Carratù, Lucrezia Gelardo, Paula Iruela, Aleksandra Lisek, Giulia Tamburini, Mariaurora Terlizzi.

Improvisations on Black Body, Ancient City

These “improvisations” are inspired by the research work and the exhibition Black Body – Ancient City by T.J. Dedeaux-Norris. A sound-based experimentation that moves across themes of the body in architecture, the Emergence Room project by T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, the Deep Listening practices of Pauline Oliveros, the history of Le Murate—from prison to cultural and research space—and the theme of the XI BHMF Common Time.
The collected voices offer possible interpretive keys and reflections around the exhibition Black Body, Ancient City.

Curated by Chiara Carratù, Lucrezia Gelardo, Paula Iruela, Aleksandra Lisek, Giulia Tamburini, Mariaurora Terlizzi

Jazz and Living Archives – William Demby 1

This narrative, divided into two chapters, guides listeners through the life and work of William Demby, beginning with his arrival in Italy in the postwar period. Through jazz—understood as both an aesthetic and narrative model—the experimental forms of his writing emerge, culminating in the work The Angel in the Death Cell.
The story concludes by presenting the Demby Archive and the theme of the BHMF edition Common Time, where memory, performance, and contemporary research keep the archive’s legacy alive in the present.

Curated by Valbona Korini, Pietro Longo, Chiara Masotti, Serena Morrocchesi, Ardita Repishti

Jazz and Living Archives – William Demby 2

This narrative, divided into two chapters, guides listeners through the life and work of William Demby, beginning with his arrival in Italy in the postwar period. Through jazz—understood as both an aesthetic and narrative model—the experimental forms of his writing emerge, culminating in the work The Angel in the Death Cell.
The story concludes by presenting the Demby Archive and the theme of the BHMF edition Common Time, where memory, performance, and contemporary research keep the archive’s legacy alive in the present.

Curated by Valbona Korini, Pietro Longo, Chiara Masotti, Serena Morrocchesi, Ardita Repishti

The Angel in the Death Cell

Interview with Justin Randolph Thompson on the William Demby Archive and the many possibilities and transformations that the Archive invites us to imagine and practise.

A prologue to the staging of The Angel in the Cell.