Eaux Claires organ sculpture to remain in city permanently

One of the most striking features of this past weekend's Eaux Claires music festival in Eau Claire, Wisc. was the organ music emanating from a giant mesh sculpture right in the center of the festival grounds.

Between sets by bands like Bon Iver and Lucius, organists would play classical music on an instrument enmeshed in a tall rectangular sculpture called Baroque, by Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi. The sculpture includes a hollowed-out area in the shape of a pipe organ, though the actual organ used for performances was a much smaller instrument — an electronic substitute with no pipes.

Now, VolumeOne reports, Baroque will have a permanent home somewhere in Eau Claire. The festival's artistic director Michael Brown volunteered the sculpture as a donation after an Eau Claire city council member requested that a separate mural from the festival be donated to the city. Brown and festival founder Justin Vernon agreed that they'd like to see Baroque, too, find a permanent home in Eau Claire.

At the moment, the sculpture is being removed from the festival grounds and put into storage, "where it will be stored until it finds a permanent home -- possibly in one of the city's parks, where it could serve as a ready-made (if small) performance venue."