Art Edition, 20 copies.  Xong collection - artist records, a vinyl-only publishing project initiated by Xing in 2021 with original creations by artists linked to the worlds of live performativity, reaches its final form with a box set of 19 artist records on white vinyl.

Xong collection - artist records was born in 2021, in the shadow of COVID and the restrictions faced by artists and organizations in the live arts. That moment made it even clearer how those working in the field of performance had the capacity to operate on other platforms and beyond a stage or a physical space. Their languages and imagination could fully expand in 'The space of the record' and express through the sonic field. At the same time, we wanted to bring together a heterogeneous group of artists crossing live arts, with whom we had worked extensively, to recapitulate a geography and history of styles, positions, and relationships shared with Xing.

The series of records (white, like a blank page) was conceived from the very beginning with a golden list of artists. About 25, mostly Italian. This project isn't about scouting, but rather about historicizing, after twenty-five years of working on live arts, the ephemerality of presence and the present. From this point of view Xong is not a label, but rather an editorial/publishing project with a term.

We chose vinyl for its physicality. And the fact that it requires a certain investment - of desire, of gesture, of connection to context - on the part of the listener. This, too, is performativity. The white vinyl is an object: it could also be hung on a wall, like a painting, a treasure chest of sounds. Or end up inventoried in an archive. We know nothing about what will happen in the future to all that is continually transcribed and rewritten in the digital cloud.

Xong collection doesn't document live performances: even in case of material from staged projects, there's a further processing. It may seem ambiguous to speak of an a priori performativity. Perhaps what we hear in Xong's records is the absent scene? A certain hauntology, a reference to a present fading before our eyes - and reforming when we listen? Xong declares itself as Music-non-Music, and from this perspective, the room for interpretation to the listener in turn creates a space of receptive performativity.

Every Xong record's story is different. Even in terms of 'genre,' the records are extremely diverse, being portraits of personalities. We fall under the umbrella of experimentation or sound art, in terms of 'shelf': from Lydia Mancinelli's spoken word for Marcello Maloberti's slogans to Mattin's activist noise; from Alessandro Bosetti's micro-linguistic polyphony to Invernomuto's inauthentic vernacular; from the spectralism of Ilaria Lemmo and Margherita Morgantin to the hardcore of Jacopo Benassi and Kinkaleri; from Luciano Maggiore's anti-speciesist improvisation to the electroacoustic and acousmatic sounds of Valerio Tricoli, Canedicoda, Renato Grieco, and Daniela Cattivelli; from the interstellar techno of Scott Gibbons and Romeo Castellucci to the Tigrinya sound of Muna Mussie and Massimo Carozzi; from the surrealist poetry of Giampiero Cane to the noisy travelogues arranged by Bea Goldoni; from the chamber field recordings of Mette & Iben Edvardsen to the 'glass music' of Francesco Cavaliere; from the enigmatic musique concrète of Claudio Rocchetti and Silvia Costa to the landscape reincarnations in Luca Trevisani's desktop electronics; from Elvin Brandhi's Shout The Self Out to the phantom pieces of 'placed music' from Michele Di Stefano's radio program; and finally with the noises of an Epic of the Fall experienced and commented by Cesare Pietroiusti.

Xong Collection Box (2021-2025)
Smoke grey plexiglass box with engraved logo, containing 19 LPs accompanied by the collection index.
Each record is a hand-numbered edition on white vinyl. Limited edition of 20 copies.
Artists: Kinkaleri/Jacopo Benassi, Marcello Maloberti/Lydia Mancinelli, Giampiero Cane/Daniela Cattivelli, Romeo Castellucci/Scott Gibbons, Luciano Maggiore, Margherita Morgantin/Ilaria Lemmo/Beatrice Goldoni, Canedicoda/Renato Grieco, Invernomuto, Mattin, Mette & Iben Edvardsen, Valerio Tricoli, Muna Mussie/Massimo Carozzi, Alessandro Bosetti, Cesare Pietroiusti, Francesco Cavaliere, Luca Trevisani, Silvia Costa/Claudio Rocchetti, Elvin Brandhi, Michele Di Stefano.