LURIA

2021

audio-video installation


in collaboration with Annalisa Zegna

In the popular legends of the Italian Alps Valley, the lüria is the personification of a malicious spirit, or a fantastic animal, which lures into the whirlpools of a flooding torrent those who get too close and stare at the swirling waters. It was a warning, especially to children, to keep them away from the agitated waters during the floods. In past centuries, most of these torrents - including the Cervo, focus of the research, were inhabited by otters, which made their nests among the stones and on the banks of the river. They were considered dirty and nasty animals, often associated with evil female figures and prostitutes, and were hunted down and killed by otter hunters.

This video is a reinterpretation of the figure of the Luria, a hybrid figure between the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, who inhabits the river environment and personifies the river flood, the turbid and agitated water that drags with it and changes the territory during the storms. Overturning the negative connotation of the river flood phenomenon, this work draws on popular mythology to explore a vision of the river as an agent in an ever-changing territory.

“Periodically the river overflows in these spaces. ’Flooding’ is the word they use, but in truth it’s not an overflow, it’s a remembering. Remembering where it used to be. Every waterway has a perfect memory and always tries to get back to where it was.”