Roberto Cuoghi

About

The exhibition, which has been curated by Marcella Beccaria and organised by Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, takes the form of an immersive, hugely evocative sound installation, entitled Š Â uillakku (2008) for which Cuoghi undertook an imaginative journey back to the sixth century BC and the Mesopotamia of the ancient Assyrians. Š Â uillakku recalls a period rich with historical and mythical associations, at a point when the empire was falling into ruin and the city of Ninevah (the site of which is in modern-day Iraq) was ransacked by its enemies. Inspired by Assyrian lamentations to their gods, this intense aural landscape gives the visitor the uncanny impression of being surrounded by hundreds of people, at a moment of great suffering. Simultaneously ironic and disturbing, Cuoghi's invocation of a civilization in crisis — and operating under a fearful irrationality — offers a potent echo of the current historical moment.