Ruth Beraha - Il cielo è dei violenti, 2024 and Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, 2024 - Hotel Ladinia, Ortisei
Ruth Beraha, Il cielo è dei violenti, 2024. Sound Installation. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
Ruth Beraha, Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, 2024. Ceramics. Variable dimension. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
In her works, which are mostly installation-based, Ruth Beraha dissects the dynamics behind seemingly immovable social systems. In particular, the artist thematises what appears foreign and frightening, presenting it as close to us and as a constitutive part of our identity. Her installation I’ll tell you the story I know (2021), consisted of a sound work and a funnel-shaped aluminium sculpture with a spy mirror on one side and a peephole on the other. Looking at their own reflection in front of the mirror, the audience is subjected to an involuntary interrogation, while the boundaries between consensual seduction and abuse blur. On the opposite side, the peephole allows us to observe the viewers, turning us into voyeurs as well.
For The Parliament of Marmots, the artist has created an immersive audio work, transforming a disused theatre hall in the centre of Ortisei. Here we hear the sweet song of a little bird, which immediately transports us to an idyllic natural landscape. This is followed by other bird calls: some of indigenous species, others migratory, only passing through Val Gardena. Accompanied by the beating of wings, the voices multiply in an ever louder sound cloud. The menacing power of nature briefly fills the manmade space, transforming it into a dystopian scenario, before the voices disperse once more and only the sweet chirping of the first little bird can be heard. Is the sound of this song still the same as at the beginning, or has our perception of it changed in the meantime? Ruth Beraha leaves possible interpretations open, so that the viewer is prompted to redefine his or her own point of view. (S.G.)
RUTH BERAHA
Ruth Beraha (1986, Milan, Italy) works with immersive audio, sculptures, installations, and drawings, to investigate the way we relate to the Other, shattering the certainties we base our experience of the world on. Her work has recently been exhibited at MAXXI, MACRO, and Arte in Memoria Biennial of Contemporary Art, Rome; GAMeC, Bergamo; Trafo, Szczecin; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Mimosa House, London; MUFOCO, Cinisello Balsamo; Museo della città, Livorno; MAMbo, Bologna; Ca’ Rezzonico Museum, Venice; and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. In 2022 she was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2023 Beraha won the Conai Prize; in 2020 she won the New York Prize and has been Associate Research Scholar, Columbia University, New York. She has been artist in residence at ISCP, Brooklyn, New York; Nuovo Forno del Pane, MAMbo, Bologna; and Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice.
Ruth Beraha - Il cielo è dei violenti, 2024 and Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, 2024 - Hotel Ladinia, Ortisei
Ruth Beraha, Il cielo è dei violenti, 2024. Sound Installation. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
Ruth Beraha, Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, 2024. Ceramics. Variable dimension. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo
In her works, which are mostly installation-based, Ruth Beraha dissects the dynamics behind seemingly immovable social systems. In particular, the artist thematises what appears foreign and frightening, presenting it as close to us and as a constitutive part of our identity. Her installation I’ll tell you the story I know (2021), consisted of a sound work and a funnel-shaped aluminium sculpture with a spy mirror on one side and a peephole on the other. Looking at their own reflection in front of the mirror, the audience is subjected to an involuntary interrogation, while the boundaries between consensual seduction and abuse blur. On the opposite side, the peephole allows us to observe the viewers, turning us into voyeurs as well.
For The Parliament of Marmots, the artist has created an immersive audio work, transforming a disused theatre hall in the centre of Ortisei. Here we hear the sweet song of a little bird, which immediately transports us to an idyllic natural landscape. This is followed by other bird calls: some of indigenous species, others migratory, only passing through Val Gardena. Accompanied by the beating of wings, the voices multiply in an ever louder sound cloud. The menacing power of nature briefly fills the manmade space, transforming it into a dystopian scenario, before the voices disperse once more and only the sweet chirping of the first little bird can be heard. Is the sound of this song still the same as at the beginning, or has our perception of it changed in the meantime? Ruth Beraha leaves possible interpretations open, so that the viewer is prompted to redefine his or her own point of view. (S.G.)
RUTH BERAHA
Ruth Beraha (1986, Milan, Italy) works with immersive audio, sculptures, installations, and drawings, to investigate the way we relate to the Other, shattering the certainties we base our experience of the world on. Her work has recently been exhibited at MAXXI, MACRO, and Arte in Memoria Biennial of Contemporary Art, Rome; GAMeC, Bergamo; Trafo, Szczecin; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Mimosa House, London; MUFOCO, Cinisello Balsamo; Museo della città, Livorno; MAMbo, Bologna; Ca’ Rezzonico Museum, Venice; and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. In 2022 she was a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2023 Beraha won the Conai Prize; in 2020 she won the New York Prize and has been Associate Research Scholar, Columbia University, New York. She has been artist in residence at ISCP, Brooklyn, New York; Nuovo Forno del Pane, MAMbo, Bologna; and Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice.