Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

As part of the 2008 Inverno a Firenze (Winter in Florence), Adi Da's Image-Art was featured in the medieval church, the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, strikingly juxtaposed with Domenico Ghirlandaio's Last Supper (1480). More about this art exhibition here.

This video was a part of that exhibition. It is an animated work that combines art drawn from Adi Da's The Spectra Suites with new electronic music by Francesco Rampichini. It was conceived and directed by Valeria Patera, and edited by Valeria Spera.

The Spectra Suites. Between 1998 and 2006, Adi Da focused on camera-based imagery, creating a highly complex body of work (in both black-and-white and color) that now exceeds 60,000 images and a great many hours of videotape. The Spectra Suites is a consequence of His work from that great library. In these suites, Adi Da combines digitally generated imagery with images He created using still and video cameras. To achieve each finished work, He then meticulously crafted every detail by digital means. Each of the ten Spectra Suites is based on one or more of His fundamental images — many of which are a powerful visual and philosophical complexity.

Francesco Rampichini. Through his music, master guitarist and composer, Francesco Rampichini, has created a wide range of sound and image interconnections, composing for theater, dance, digital art and collaborating on important exhibitions and museum installations. He taught at the Civic Music Schools in Milan, Opera, Locate Triulzi and at the Ateneo della chitarra and the European Music Institute in Milan. He teaches at CPSM at the Conservatory of Milan (of which he has been vice president) and at the Civica Music School of Locate Triulzi (guitar, ensemble music, computer music). He is President of the Jury of Guitar Competition Rocco Peruggini, artistic director of the Lyric Competition Principessa Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso, and was the first Italian President of the Jury of the Django d'Or International Award under the High Patronage of the Embassy of France in Rome (1999). More about Francesco at his website.

Valeria Patera Valeria Patera studied philosophy of science at Università degli Studi di Milano, and graduated in dramaturgy from the Civic School of Art.e Dramatic Paolo Grassi. She is a playwright, director, actress and scholar of the relationship between art, science, and philosophy. She collaborates with prestigious universities, research centers and European foundations including University of Sheffield, State University of Milan, ROME THREE, La Sapienza, La Sorbonne, University of Leeds and Portland, Gulbenkian Foundation, Sigma Tau Foundation. Since 2002, she has written, published and staged live work shows and life stories that have radically altered our way of seeing the world, including "Alan's Apple" about Alan Turing, the inventor of the computer; and "I, Charles Darwin: Traces and voices of my life", on the father of the theory of evolution.

Valeria Spera. Valeria Spera has a degree in "Communication Sciences and Technologies" and a specialized degree in "Television, Cinema, and Multimedia Production" from the University of Milan. She currently works with the Feltrinelli Group's La Effe TV in creating new formats for their autumn television season.

Tags: Image-Art   music  

In 2016, on a summer night in the beautiful city of Florence, the Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj as the backdrop. Vivaldi's masterpiece has four parts, corresponding to the four seasons. In this newly expanded performance, musical preludes have been added before each season, featuring the musical composition and performance of hang drummer extraordinaire Paolo Borghi of Rome. In this excerpt, we hear Borghi's "Prelude" to Vivaldi's "Winter".

The performance took place on the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval multi-arch bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. The Ponte Vecchio is one of the most historic bridges in the world, and the earliest bridge at this spot is believed to have been built in Roman times.

This performance is in preparation for a planned, fuller performance in 2017.

Tags: Florence Dance Company   Image-Art  

“The Ascent of Orpheus” exhibition of Adi Da's art ran from July 9 - October 11, 2015, at the Bargello National Museum, Florence.

This video clip is a final walk through of the exhibition, on October 11, 2015.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art  

Ruchiradama Nadikanta is a senior devotee of Avatar Adi Da and a member of the Ruchira Sannyasin Order. She served as Adi Da's spiritual ambassador at the groundbreaking exhibition of Adi Da's Image-Art, The Ascent Of Orpheus, in the renowned Bargello Museum in Florence, which ran from July 7 - October 11, 2015. In this unique presentation (filmed on July 7, 2015), Ruchiradama Nadikanta takes us on a guided tour of the exhibition, describing the extraordinary nature of Adi Da's art, and providing us with an esoteric understanding of "The Ascent of Orpheus", and how it reflects Adi Da's incarnation and liberating work.

videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Ruchiradama Nadikanta  

Excerpt from the Florence Dance Company's performance of the multimedia dance event, Orpheus Ascending, with Adi Da's Image-Art in the background. The music is Ray Lynch's "Passion Song", from his album, Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening.

Orpheus Ascending was a highlight of the October 8, 2015 Finissage Event for The Ascent of Orpheus, the exhibition of Adi Da's art at the Bargello Museum in Florence that ran from July 9 to October 11, 2015.

Choreography: Keith Ferrone
Artistic direction: Marga Nativo
Featured dancers:
Daniel Sandwiches (Orpheus)
Ylenia Mendolicchio (Eurydice)
Emilia Giubasso (chorus)
Virginia Montel Brains (chorus)
Jane Llaha (chorus)
Elisa Torrigiani (chorus)

The video clip is from a longer Toscana TV News clip with noted journalist Fabrizio Borghini reporting on the Finissage Event.

Tags: Florence Dance Company   Image-Art  

The Florence Dance Company’s performance of Divina(dot)com (on July 9 – 11, 2015) in celebration of the 750th anniversary of Dante’s birth, in the Bargello National Museum courtyard, featuring Adi Da Samraj’s art, and performed in association with The Ascent of Orpheus exhibition at the Bargello Museum.

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

At the July 8, 2015 Press Conference, Stanley Hastings (Managing Director, Da Plastique) speaks about Adi Da Samraj’s unique artistic process, on display in Adi Da Samraj’s “The Ascent of Orpheus” exhibition at the Bargello National Museum, Florence.

For more about the exhibition, click here.

Tags: Image-Art  

Opening night gala (July 9, 2015) for Adi Da Samraj, “The Ascent of Orpheus” exhibition at the Bargello National Museum, Florence. Includes opening events and interviews.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

Tags: Image-Art  

Adi Da Samraj's "The Ascent of Orpheus" Exhibition is now open! Come join us in a walk through of the exhibition.

For more about the exhibition (which runs from July 9 - October 11, 2015 in the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy), click here.

Tags: Orpheus One   Linead One   Image-Art  

On the evening of July 24, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The performance was called "Dancing on the Bridge of the World", because it took place on the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval multi-arch bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy. The Ponte Vecchio is one of the most historic bridges in the world, and the earliest bridge at this spot is believed to have been built in Roman times.

This slideshow includes photographs of "Dancing on the Bridge of the World" by Richard Osbourne.

Music is by Aaron Nakagawa.

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

On July 21 and 22, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The venue was the courtyard of the historic Bargello Museum in Florence.

This video clip provides an introduction to the place (Florence), the dancers, the musicians, the art (images from Adi Da's Geome One: Alberti's Window, in four different colorings for the four seasons), and the costumes (which were color-coordinated with the art).

Also in this clip: Italian art critic, Giuliano Serafini (author of Matisse e il Mediterraneo and Goya, praises the combination of music, dance, and art: "It's the best!". Serafini, Keith Ferrone (director of the Florence Dance Company), and Ruchiradama Nadikanta all note the technological advance represented by the LED lighting in the back panels, that brought out the color in Adi Da's art to a far greater degree than in previous performances (assisted by new fabrications of Adi Da's art), and enlivened the dancers' performance.

Ruchiradama Nadikanta: "Absolutely exquisite! . . . It was one symphony — of dance, and art, and music. . . Adi Da was immensely present, infusing every note and every step, as well as shining through His extraordinary Art. . . You feel [the dancers] really dancing to the Art."

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

[The interview is in Dutch.]

Pien Rademakers speaks with Ratatouille TV (Holland) about Quandra Loka, the exhibition of Adi Da's art at Galerie Pien Rademakers, from May 24, 2014 to June 29, 2014.

For more about the exhibition, click here.

Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka   Dutch  

Opening Reception of the exhibition, "Quandra Loka - The Indivisible Space of Conscious Light": color and black-and-white photographic images, combined with the full-wall multi-media installation. Showing at Galerie Pien Rademakers, Prinsengracht 570, Amsterdam, May 24 - June 29, 2014. Also appearing at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam, June 4-9, 2014.


For more about this exhibition, click here.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka  

Sneak preview of the exhibition, "Quandra Loka - The Indivisible Space of Conscious Light": color and black-and-white photographic images, combined with the full-wall multi-media installation. Premiering at Galerie Pien Rademakers, Prinsengracht 570, Amsterdam, May 24 - June 29, 2014. Also appearing at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam, June 4-9, 2014.

For more about this exhibition, click here.


Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka  

Preview of the multi-media installation, "Quandra Loka - The Indivisible Space of Conscious Light". Premiering at Galerie Pien Rademakers, Prinsengracht 570, Amsterdam, May 24 - June 29, 2014. Also appearing at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam, June 4-9, 2014.

For more about this exhibition, click here.


Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka