Michael Rakowitz's 'Imperfect Binding' at Castello di Rivoli

Michael Rakowitz's exhibition 'Imperfect Binding' at Castello di Rivoli, curated by Iwona Blazwick, Marianna Vecellio, and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, explores the relationship between art and history, focusing on Middle Eastern disasters. The show includes works like 'What dust will rise?' from Documenta 13, featuring travertine sculptures of lost books from Kassel's WWII libraries, and 'The flesh is yours, the bones are ours' (2015), addressing the Armenian genocide, now in the museum's permanent collection. Rakowitz's ongoing series 'The invisible enemy should not exist' (2007–present) recreates cultural artifacts destroyed in the Second Gulf War and the ISIS destruction of Nimrud's Northwest Palace in 2015. The exhibition title derives from a 1935 prayer book from Rakowitz's maternal family, bound in Turin for the Cerruti Collection. Other works include installations with plastic date-food paper curtains and papier-mâché sculptures from Arabic-English newspapers. Rakowitz also references the Beatles' 'Glass Onion' in a dedicated installation linking Middle Eastern history to the band's chronology. The show features handwritten texts on artworks, reflecting Rakowitz's narrative seriousness.