In the depths of instinct. At the Baths of Caracalla Yuval Avital unveils his “Mysterion” – Rome

Roma – Sinking into the labyrinth of one’s ancestral fears to find the light again after an initiatory journey face to face with the rite of origins. And after a tiring journey through chimeras animated by human voices and animal sounds camouflaged with the capitals, friezes, bas-reliefs of one of the best preserved thermal complexes of antiquity, re-emerge enraptured by a light that invites rebirth.
In the maze of underground galleries where, anonymously, hundreds of slaves and workers undertook to activate the ingenious technological machine of the Baths completed in 216 AD by the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, known as Caracalla, the artist Yuval Avital returns to the Mithraeum between the largest and best preserved in Rome its ancient rite.
And the public 1800 years later relives, participates, suffers, protagonists of a cathartic ritual, abandoning themselves to this bridge between the concrete and the subconscious fueled by mysterion.
Conceived specifically for the basement of the Baths of Caracalla, in spaces not always open to the public, produced by the Special Superintendence of Rome directed by Daniela Porro, in collaboration with the Reggio Parma Festival and the Teatro Due Foundation of Parma, Animal lexicon. Mysterion is the new, powerful chapter of Avital’s ever-changing initiatory journey. This is the continuation of the great experimental work Animal lexicon. Prologueborn in the context of the macro-opera The Bestiary of the Earthconceived by the artist as project of the year of the Reggio Parma Festival, in collaboration with Teatro Due.

Yuval Avital, Animal Lexicon. Mysterion | Photo: © MONKEYS VIDEO LAB2

New ones were added to the animal categories explored in Parma, thus recalling the imagery of the Mithraic symbology that flanks the lion and the dog with the Bull, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Raven.
In the space of the Mithraeum of the Baths of Caracalla – built at the beginning of the III century AD, with its la fossa sanguinisused on the occasion of the ritual of the sacrifice of the bull – and in part of the basement of the Baths of Caracalla, from February 25th to April 23rd the Israeli artist confronts the mysterious universe, overturning not only the practice of secrecy, essential in antiquity , but also transgressing the constraint of exclusion, welcoming the female element for the first time.

“The term Mysterion – explains Yuval Avital – recalls the ancient mystery rites which, by stripping man of his daily and social guise, created a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious, between animal and human, between reason and instinct. Animal lexicon. Mysterion it is a journey into the depths of the most emotional, instinctive and animalistic sphere of the human being. In the mithraeum, the adepts performed sacred rituals through seven stages of initiation, represented by animals and archetypal symbols: it is a place of strong experiential value that allows a contemporary recovery of the rite. In an era in which creativity is mistaken for market manipulation, there are still those who believe in the original, the unexpected, the honest, poetic, free”.

Yuval Avital, Animal Lexicon. Mysterion | Photo: © MONKEYS VIDEO LAB2

This intense path of strong impact, curated by Cristiano Leone and with the scientific curatorship of the director of the Terme Mirella Serlorenzi, interweaves sculpture, video art, photography, sculpture, sound installation, painting, material composition by bringing ancient and contemporary into dialogue.
“The Superintendency – explains the Special Superintendent Daniela Porro – confirms the aptitude for experimentation, contemporaneity and contamination, when these elements merge with the archaeological sites that host them, respecting their history and value. These performative actions serve to make people understand the spirit of the place and to open underground spaces to the public, usually open on special occasions”.

The initiatory path with which Avital transports us to an “other” dimension begins in the tunnel that once led to the heated rooms of the forecourts, a 130-metre-long labyrinth now populated by archetypal creatures, linked to the sphere of unconscious fears that emerge from the dark background. After all, for the adepts of Mithraism, fear was the real engine for overcoming oneself and for passing to the next initiatory state.
The inner journey continues in the gallery which houses nineteen photographs that bear witness to the transformation process and the successful transformation of the performers into animals, in an intimate art ritual carried out behind closed doors in the presence of the artist, the performers and the curator. The sound sculptures of the Sirensicon-sound works in iron that dialogue with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s reintegrated Apple.

Yuval Avital, Animal Lexicon. Mysterion | Photo: © MONKEYS VIDEO LAB2

Without giving in to their bewitching song, the visitor goes forward impatient to reach the great mithraeum, the apotheosis of the entire exhibition and performance itinerary, where he advances in silence enraptured by an intense and unprecedented creation that transforms ten performers into the animals present in the cult of Mithras. The clay used to cover their bodies, the costumes that complete their transformation into animals and small raw clay sculptures become new finds of a timeless archeology testifying to the transformative process that Yuval Avital, in collaboration with the curator, has carried out during four immersive days behind closed doors right in the Mithraeum.
Three material compositions obtained by Avital under the scientific guidance of Mirella Serlorenzi by assembling some archaeological finds preserved in the deposits of the Baths, many of which are thus exhibited for the first time, accompany the visitor towards the exit. These hybrid figures recall the Bull, the Scorpion, the Serpent and the Crow, the animals of Mithraic symbology.

Yuval Avital, Animal Lexicon. Mysterion | Photo: © Fabio Caricchia

“Yuval Avital – explains the curator Cristiano Leone – is an investigator, an explorer of the ritual: he researches it, practices it, performs it. And, in doing it, he studies it, documents it, and transforms it. Performance for Avital is just one of the media through which his vision of the universe is manifested, in which the archeology of the past is at the same time a possibility of future existence. The ruin is a trace of a time that never ended, and for this reason it is a monument, a warning and a trail for a free and shared future spirituality”.

The performance can be enjoyed live on the opening days, February 25 and 26 from 10 to 16.30, while for the entire duration of the exhibition it will be projected inside the Mithraeum. For the remaining period it will be possible to access the exhibition from Friday to Sunday, in March from 11.30 to 17.30, in April from 13.15 to 19.15. Last admission one hour before closing.