Pazuzu, 2010

Roberto Cuoghi has made metamorphosis the weapon of his survival, as well as his artistic tool. At the age of twenty-five he transformed his own body until he came to resemble his father. He assumed the appearance and manners of a person more than sixty years old, living this way for almost seven years, in a gesture that blurs the boundaries between his private world and his artistic practice. Taking back possession of his own life, from an adult viewpoint, Cuoghi continues to adhere closely to the idea of metamorphosis, changing the initial physical process into successive operations that are exquisitely mental. In his art, transformation is the principle that ties the investigation of themes of time and memory to the continuous confusion between appearance and reality.[...]