Pian o Fort e is perhaps Alwin Reamillo’s biggest solo show in many years, this time taking advantage of Altro Mondo’s large space for an almost comprehensive display of his more recent concerns. Reamillo makes use of the gallery’s Monteverdi room for a piano installation surrounded by bricolage “wing” pieces and other objects, perhaps the softer (piano) part of the show, and then the gallery’s ground floor for an assembly of pianos, both functional and deconstructed, that may be deemed as the forte (loud) part of the exhibition. The latter is functional in the sense that it also activates a stage , with two recently modified upright pianos to be played on for a gathering of people or community through music during the show’s opening.

The show can also be approached as a contrast between light objects as the softer works (consisting of mixed-media box works, little piano-lid “wings,” and wall-bound paintings) and heavy ones as the loud pieces (consisting of piano parts deconstructed to sport wheels [for them to be able to “rock and roll”] and a player piano, the rolling part of which would be its own pedal-powered sheet music).

Of course the show may strike one as loud in its entirety, whether by its political and historical weight and emotions. But, be that as it may, there is lightness to be sensed in it all, primarily through the “wings” that egg people on to softly fly with their erudite thoughts as well as with their personal hopes for a nation.