I muri di Eustachio

Beatrice Caruso and Rebecca Sforzani 

2021 | Genoa
soy wax and audio installation

Photo credits: Beatrice Fanari, Michela Mosca and Virginia Pollesel 

The installation is inspired by a historical episode that dates back to the seventeenth century, according to which the Jews of the ghetto of Genoa, forced to participate in the Sunday sermon, entered the church with their ears covered with wax. Along the streets of the ghetto, there are many niches and votive Christian aedicules, which had a double function towards the Jewish community: a reminder of their accusation of deicide, but also a form of memento – carved on the walls – of their condition of guests and refugees, professing a religion only tolerated by the Superba. Inside the church of San Marcellino, we placed the mold of the aedicule of Porta dei Vacca, an access point to the ghetto: we considered it as the ear of the city, to evoke metaphorically a historical fact but also a gesture of personal and collective resistance. In Vico del Campo three ears recall the niches and represent an invitation to listen to each other. The voices that resonate within San Marcellino are the ones of those who live in the neighborhood and frequent it daily. During the residency in February 2021, we lived via del Campo and we invited these people to share how they live this place. Like the prayers that the faithful entrust to the lighting of a votive candle, this “choral monologue” symbolically represents -in secular form- the hopes and desires of the inhabitants of the neighborhood.

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Thanks to the San Marcellino Association and the Via del Campo Committee, to Lorenzo Ramos, Lorenzo Penco and Christian Spadarotto. Thanks to Bruno, Chiara, Claudia, Claudio, Elide, Ibrahim, Lucia, Marco, Paolo, Tarek, Veronica.

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The project was conceived during two art residencies (February and June 2021) and shown during Divago Festival curated by MIXTA in Genoa in September 2021.

You can listen to the audio of the installation here: