Polysonica in Poli

A village in the Monti Prenestini turned into a musical score

In Poli, a small town in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital nestled in the Monti Prenestini, the urban landscape transforms for one night into a musical instrument. Polysonica in Poli is an evening of sound and visual research that brings installations, headphone-guided walks, live performances, and DJ sets to the historic center, with the Piazzale della Chiesa di Santo Stefano serving as the headquarters and starting point of the experience.

The initiative stems from the meeting between the Polysonica project, dedicated to exploring sound languages between ancient roots and contemporary electronics, and the Brain Community Monti Prenestini APS association, which has been active for years in the cultural promotion of the territory east of Rome. The evening is organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Poli and with the support of the Lazio Region.

"Diari – Maria Graham," the heart of the project

The core of the event is the headphone-guided sound walk "Diari – Maria Graham," curated by Brain Community and Polysonica. You walk through the alleys of the ancient village guided by the gaze of Maria Graham, a British traveler and narrator who, in the early 19th century, chose independence as a lens to describe the world and who spent three months in Poli in 1819, leaving behind precious pages about the territories east of Rome.

The result is a rare hybrid of documentary, listening theater, and urban walk: voices, field recordings, and sound design overlap with the actual stones of the village, restoring a memory that usually remains locked in archives. Participation is free, but spots for each time slot are limited, so booking is mandatory.

Installations, performances, and live music

The rest of the program is organized around the sound walk, designed as a continuous flow from sunset until late at night:

• Polysonica Sound — welcoming musical selection accompanying the arrival of the public and the aperitif.
• "Oculucis" — a light installation by Hermes Mangialardo, a visual intervention that interacts with the village spaces and accompanies the nocturnal experience throughout the weekend.
• "Sherazade" by Orchi_dee — a live multimedia performance by Eleonora Gusmano, actress, director, and performer, together with Alessandro Romano / LORCO, musician and sound engineer: poetry, narration, and sound matter in a single scenic gesture.
• Pentesilea — closing DJ set by the artist from the IPOLOGICA collective and label, steering the evening towards more decisive electronic sounds.

Why it's worth the trip

Poli is one of those Lazio villages that you can walk through in a few minutes but which guard centuries-long layers, from the Conti castle to the small churches in the center. Polysonica deliberately chooses not to build a traditional stage: the village itself, with its staircases, overlooks, and silences, acts as the backdrop and resonance chamber.

For those visiting the area, it is also an opportunity to discover the Monti Prenestini in an unusual version, far from mass tourism and closer to an artistic research scene that has found a stable laboratory in this part of the Roman province in recent years, with events spread between Palestrina, San Cesareo, and neighboring towns.

A project spread across the territory

Polysonica is not an isolated event: it is a traveling festival that visits multiple locations in the Lazio Region throughout the year, with a main festival hosted in the spaces of the Convent and Church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Palestrina and thematic incursions in other municipalities. The Poli stop represents the most intimate and site-specific version of this research, where the relationship between sound, memory, and the local community becomes most direct.