Cuoghi and Imhof's Faustian Visions at Venice Biennale

At the 2017 Venice Biennale, Anne Imhof's 'Faust' in the German Pavilion and Roberto Cuoghi's 'Imitatio Christi' in the Arsenale emerge as the exhibition's most provocative works. Imhof's installation features a glass floor suspended above Hans Haacke's 1993 rubble, creating a transparent barrier between real and virtual. Performers move like automatons, while visitors chase images on smartphones, reflecting a contemporary dictatorship of screens. Cuoghi's work presents dozens of crucified Christ figures covered in mold and bacteria, displayed in a paleo-Christian basilica setting with skeletal limbs and imperfect face casts. The piece draws on Thomas à Kempis's 15th-century text and Hans Holbein's 1521 painting 'The Dead Christ'. Cuoghi's focus on decaying matter and ancient memory contrasts with Imhof's anxious present, yet both artists question the viewer's position. Imhof's Protestant-inspired temple-cage exposes the simulacrum of existence, while Cuoghi's Catholic crypt explores the survival of antiquity. Curator Cecilia Alemani highlighted the theme of 'survival of the ancient' in Cuoghi's work. The Biennale's 57th edition runs in Venice.