Ruth Beraha joins the RETROFUTURE section, the collection of works by young Italian artists growing organically with time. Her multimedia include sculptures, installations, immersive audio and drawings. Beraha’s research intertwines the personal and collective imagination, investigating subtle structural violence, resulting in works that invite us to explore the other no longer as a distant and incomprehensible entity, but as a constitutive part of one’s own identity.

The work entering the collection is I’ll tell you the story I know, 2021, which the artist explains here: “A voice interrogates a silent suspect, which observers are forced to personify as soon as they put on the headphones. The voice wavers between a police interrogation and a BDSM scene, blurring the boundaries between consensual play and abuse. Listeners see their own reflection in a mirror inside the suspended cone. The other end of the cone functions as a peephole: by peering inside, it is possible to watch the listener at the opposite end, without being seen. The mirror is actually a spy mirror, a voyeuristic device with which to impose one’s gaze on someone else, but also a window in which to exhibit oneself and seduce. Without any explicit mentioning of violence, the work forces viewers into a role playing game of victim-victimizer, underscoring the power structure that controls them both”.

RUTH BERAHA (1986, Milan) lives and works in Bologna. Through a multimedia practice that includes sculptures, installations, immersive audio and drawings, Ruth Beraha’s research interweaves the personal and collective imaginary, investigating its subtle structural violence. Her most recent exhibitions include: No Fly Zone#3 Ncontemporary gallery, Milan (2021); Syncopes, Mimosa House, London (2020); My Blueberry Night II, Piazza del Duomo, Bergamo (2019); Dad Jokes, Ncontemporary gallery, Milan (2019); Non sarai mai solo, Museo della Città, Livorno (2019); MONO 2, solo show, LocaleDue, Bologna (2018); Arte in memoria 10, Biennale internazionale di Arte Contemporanea, Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica, Rome (2018); That’s it, MAMbo, Bologna (2018); Pensiero stupendo (self-portrait), Museo Ca’ Rezzonico, Venice (2018); Take Me (I’m Yours), Generosity programme, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017).