Rome, the silence of St. Peter's Campanone becomes sound art with Bill Fontana

The silent sound of the great bell of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome becomes art. Starting Feb. 16, visitors to the most important basilica in Christendom will be able to immerse themselves in an unforgettable sound experience: the “silence” of the Campanone, the monumental bell cast by Valadier, will be transformed into a sound sculpture by American artist Bill Fontana (Cleveland, 1947). The work, titled The Silent Echoes of a Great Sound Sculpture - St. Peter’s Campanone, curated by Umberto Vattani and Valentino Catricalà, from will be inaugurated as part of the White Night of the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, an event organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

On Sunday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m., thousands of artists and cultural figures from around the world will gather under the Basilica’s portico, greeted by a sound installation that amplifies the vibrations of the bell. A project that is not limited to the reproduction of sound, but brings out the hidden side of one of the symbolic elements of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Among all the bells in the world, the Valadier, St. Peter’s Campanone, occupies a special position at the center of Christianity,” stressed curator Umberto Vattani. “We aim to give voice to this silence. With the help of technology, we will make audible to the human ear these hidden sounds, these silent voices that the Great Bell of St. Peter’s holds. We will make the invisible resonate and give new life to this great sound sculpture so that it can make the world hear a language of peace and hope that everyone can hear.”

“This is a unique, unprecedented event,” adds Valentino Catricalà. “For the first time an installation of contemporary art is hosted inside the portico of St. Peter’s, a place of great importance and intensity. The work on the bell of St. Peter’s developed electronically by the great sound art pioneer Bill Fontana becomes sculpture, an expanding organism that resonates within the evocative space of the portico. A work between electronics and spirituality, between contemporary and ancient.”

The sound you can’t hear

The installation employs state-of-the-art sensors to pick up the imperceptible internal vibrations of the Campanone. Weighing more than nine tons, the bell emits a movement that, while inaudible to the human ear, has been recorded, amplified and made audible thanks to a sophisticated audio system. This is a first: never before has a bell of this size been transformed into a sound sculpture, capable of transmitting not only the sound, but also the breath of bronze. The installation conceived by the president of the prestigious Venice International University,

Umberto Vattani, is promoted by the Venice International University (VIU), a consortium that brings together 23 universities and research centers from around the world, from the United States to Japan, from Russia to South Africa, and realized thanks to the support of Enel, Gruppo FS Italiane and Meyer Sound. The public address system, consisting of 12 state-of-the-art speakers, has been placed in the Basilica’s portico. Here, visitors will be able to hear the hidden voice of the Campanone as they walk through the sacred space, greeted by a sound wave symbolizing a message of peace and brotherhood.

Art, technology and spirituality

Bill Fontana is considered one of the pioneers of sound art. His work explores the acoustic dimension of places, transforming natural and architectural elements into immersive installations. With the support ofIRCAM in Paris, Fontana has already given voice to imperceptible sounds, such as the movement of glaciers or the underwater roar of oceans. The installation in St. Peter’s Basilica is part of this research: sound, traditionally associated with the religious function of bells, is here reread through an artistic perspective. The result is a work that blends technology and spirituality, amplifying the symbolic presence of the Campanone and creating an unprecedented listening experience.

Bells have played a central role in community life since the Middle Ages: they marked time, called to prayer, and announced happy or tragic events. St. John Paul II called them “the voice of God that invites and consoles, reassures in silence and in the night.” Pope Francis, in his magisterium, stressed the urgency of uniting and inviting to brotherhood “Every gesture that unites us, every voice that calls to dialogue and peace is a gift for all humanity.”

Notes on the artist

Born in Cleveland in 1947, Bill Fontana is one of the leading exponents of contemporary sound art. For more than fifty years he has used sound as a sculptural material, transforming environments with his installations. He has exhibited in prestigious museums and institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern in London, MAXXI in Rome, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of

Victoria in Melbourne, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, MAAT in Lisbon, and the 48th Venice Biennale. Among his most celebrated works, Silent Echoes gave new voice to the Emmanuel bell of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which survived the 2019 fire. Fontana has also recorded the sound of cracks in the Dachstein glacier in Austria, exploring the hidden language of nature.

Rome, the silence of St. Peter's Campanone becomes sound art with Bill Fontana

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