Šuillakku by Roberto Cuoghi and TH.2058 by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Unknown Civilisations from Past and Future

Abstract

The global character of the current health crisis, which reflects the interconnection of the contemporary world, authorizes a reference to projects that rethink civilizations. This paper proposes an analysis of two artworks from 2008: Šuillakku by Roberto Cuoghi (Modena, 1973), an immersive sound installation presented for the first time at the Castello di Rivoli (Turin) and TH.2058 by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (Strasbourg, 1965), an environmental installation conceived for the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London. The works develop in two diametrically opposed temporal directions: the first is rooted in the ancient past, the second is projected into an apocalyptic future. Both installations have the power to trascend present reality and offer glimpes of alternative civilizations, different from ours and unknown. Cuoghi’s and Gonzalez-Foerster’s narratives are nurtured by a long process of study and assimilation of the artistic, literary and cultural heritage of a given civilization or historical period, and they both resort to quotation and appropriation processes of a peculiar, unprecedented kind. Through the analysis of these multifaceted projects, in dialogue with the artists’ respective practices, and through a conversation undertaken with them in the form of an interview, the paper proposes a reflection on the present, on the prophetic quality of art and some perspective on the art of the future.