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Logoranti e macabre perversioni

Logoranti e macabre perversioni

Historical materials for the work: text, photographs, audio and video when available.

Roberto Pugliese

Logoranti e macabre perversioni resin, speakers, iron, audio playback system, composition

20 x 30 x 150cm

2019

On a pedestal a skull is anchored between whose teeth a loudspeaker is placed. The work is inspired by the adoption of skulls which is part of the Neapolitan tradition. In some catacombs "extra moenia" deaths were buried. Especially those of the plague of 1656 and those of cholera of 1865. Tragic epidemics that decimated the city and filled these places with anonymous remains, with bodies without identity to which to be buried. It was thought to save the living, and the bonds with the dead were abandoned, losing the private mourning of the loss. The relationship of the city of Naples with death is a question that arises on every corner. In Naples, death is the other side of life: you don't chase away, you team up to take advantage of it. Purging souls are the link with the afterlife, those who guide and protect those who are still alive. Hence, the practice still in use by some people to adopt and take care of some skulls, to which they give gifts and ask for thanks.

Starting from this tradition, the artist wants to create a work in which he returns word and sound to a skull, which, through a long electro-acoustic composition, returns some verses written by the artist at a young age.

A vivid work in its macabre perversion.