Venice Biennale: Whose reflection do you see?

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

Roberto Cuoghi’s “Imitazione di Cristo” (“Imitation of Christ”) at the Italian Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale.

VENICE, Italy---Timing isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. If the bland, soft-power 2017 Venice Biennale, called “Viva Arte Viva,” had arrived two, or four, or six years ago, it might have passed muster, even made sense. But coming post-Brexit and post-Trump, it feels almost perversely out of sync with the political moment, and nowhere near strong enough to define a moment of its own. At the Arsenale, Zad Moultaka’s sound-and-light apocalypse in the Lebanon Pavilion, with a bomber fuselage at its center, is something to see, as is Roberto Cuoghi’s sexy sculptural mortuary at the Italian Pavilion, organized by Cecilia Alemani. [More]

Roberto Cuoghi, The Imitation of Christ, the plastic tunnel and some of the figures inside it during the deterioration process; photos © Inexhibit, 2017

Roberto Cuoghi, The Imitation of Christ, the figures of Christ are finally dried and their fragments recomposed on a dark wall; photos © Inexhibit, 2017