Erich Turroni's Bunker Exhibition Confronts War Atrocities in Monopoli

In the dark, oppressive atmosphere of the World War II air-raid bunkers carved into sandstone in Monopoli in 1942, sculptor Erich Turroni (born 1976 in Cesena) presents works exploring the atrocities inflicted on humanity during the conflict. The exhibition, titled 'Sotto le palpebre del giorno – omaggio a Kurt Vonnegut' and curated by Roberto Lacarbonara, runs until September 30, 2022. It is organized by the Municipality of Monopoli in collaboration with the Fondazione Pino Pascali of Polignano a Mare. Ten resin and synthetic material sculptures depict archetypes of deformity—fleshless, spectral bodies twisted in suffering, resembling fossil-cadavers on their way to Hades, stripped of all humanity. A series of large sanguine portraits similarly erase all traces of subjectivity. The bunker's passages are inscribed with quotes from Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' marking the author's centenary. Curator Lacarbonara describes the works as 'deformed shells with the sketch of a figure bordering on memento mori, representing non-gazes, non-bodies, non-mouths—a flayed truth, erosion of thought and spirit.' The exhibition title references Vonnegut's line about prisoners making candles from the fat of massacred humans, underscoring the brutality of 'homo homini lupus.'