Inhuman, an exhibition to reflect on the universality of human degradation and violence

The Inhuman exhibition, curated by Giusy Caroppo, will be inaugurated on July 18 in Barletta Castle. The exhibition is part of the Circuito del Contemporaneo, a project with which the Apulia Region, in collaboration with the Teatro Pubblico Pugliese, intends to create a network for the production and enjoyment of contemporary art.

The exhibition will take place in the basement of the manor house and intends to solicit a reflection on the universality of human degradation, of violence exercised by the individual or by power.

The theme will be interpreted by site-specific interventions and works from some famous series by three international artists, Kendell Geers, Oleg Kulik and Andres Serrano.

Kendell Geers, born into a white working-class Afrikaans family during the apartheid period, embraced the anti-apartheid movement from an early age. In Inhuman he declines, through different mediums, such as neon, acrylic works, and unpublished or reinvented sculptures, his commitment as a militant artist aimed at denouncing all abuses of power and finding a new spirituality. In the itinerary, centered on a close dialogue with the works of Oleg Kulik, Geers intervenes with installations that focus on the use of force; central above all is the Christian or animist religious symbol and the choice to communicate to the public also through the more direct use of words.

The narrative is interwoven with contributions, including photography, video, and site-specific installations, by Russian Oleg Kulik, a visual artist, performer, and political activist in favor of environmental protection and animal species. From historical and visionary performances witnessed by video installations to those more closely related to his symbiosis with the animal world to messages against false morality, the violence of wars, and experimentation against living beings.

The explicit force of images characterizes the sequence of eight selected works from Andres Serrano’s Torture series, made in 2015 and exhibited in one of the Castello’s gun rooms. Anonymous victims of torture hooded, bloodied, kneeling and forced to hold unnatural and extreme positions, to close with the essence of airlessness, synthesized by the emblematic interior, narrow and long, of the security prison in Buchenwald.

Image: Kendell Geers, Crucifix (1994; chevron tape, 95x69x16 cm) Courtesy Kendell Geers

Inhuman, an exhibition to reflect on the universality of human degradation and violence

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