tomaso de luca

TOM A SO DE LUC A
T OM A S O DE LUC A
bor n i n Ve rona , Ita ly 19 88
l i v e s a n d wor k s i n R om e , Ita ly.
education
2007-10
BA in Painting and Visual Arts at NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts, Milan, IT
solo
exhibitions
2014
SA LOPP GESAGT SCHL A PP, curated by Fanny Gonella, Künstlerhaus, Bremen, DE
2013
A n incomplete portrait of A nchises, curated by Flav ia Ghidossi, Van Horbourg, Zürich, CH
2012
Tropical Malady, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, IIC, Paris, FR
The Monument, Monitor, Rome, IT
2011
Rise and Fall, curated by Davide Tomaiuolo and Paola Gallio, 26CC, Rome, IT
2010
The Sleepers/100 teste per un cacciatore, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, MACRO, Rome, IT
group
exhibitions
2014
(forthcoming) Non siamo mai stati moderni, curated by Angelo Gioé and Maria Rosa Sossai, SongEun, Seoul, K R
Visioni per un Inventario, curated by A ndrea Bruciati, Fondazione Bev ilacqua La Masa, Venice, IT
Le Chasseur Noir, curated by Benoit A ntille, Caves de Courten, Sierre, CH
2013
I Naturalisti, curated by Peter Miller, Castelluccio di Pienza, Chianciano, IT
Sandy Island, curated by Ilaria Marotta, Nomas Foundation, Rome, IT
Chinese Whispers, curated by Andrea Baccin, Luca Francesconi, Ilaria Gianni, Ilaria Marotta, Costanza Paissan, Cura.Basement, Rome, IT
Figura 2 - Natura Morta, curated by Ilaria Gianni and Cecilia Canziani, Galleria Nazionale Arte Moderna, Rome, IT
Add Fire - Premio Furla, curated by Ilaria Gianni and Alice Motard, Ospedale degli Innocenti, Bologna, IT
Versus XV III, curated by Francesca Referza, Velan, Turin, IT
2012
Torre A ltus, w ith Francesco Fonassi, GUM Studio, Turin, IT
Re-generation, curated by Ilaria Gianni and Maria A licata, M ACRO, Rome, IT
Sotto la Strada la Spiaggia, curated by Benoit A ntille, Michele Fiedler, A ndrey Parshikov, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT
Les Monuments Invisibles, curated by Costanza Paissan, La Galerie, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Noisy-le- Sec, Paris, FR
Io,Tu,Lui,Lei, curated by Francesco Urbano and Francesco Ragazzi, Fondazione Bevilacqa La Masa, Venice, IT
Gentlemen of Verona, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Palazzo Forti, Verona, IT
2011
Premio LUM, Teatro Margherita, Bari, IT
Tutte le stelle cadute – l’elegia di San Lorenzo, curated by Marcello Smarrelli and Maria Rosa Sossai,
Pastificio Cerere Foundation, Rome, IT
Difetto come indizio del desiderio, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Neon, Bologna, IT
2010
M O N I TO R
v i a s f o r z a c e s a r i n i 43a-44
00186 ro m e
+39.06.39378024
m o n i t o r @ m o n i t o ro n l i n e .o rg
w w w. m o n i t o ro n l i n e .o rg
Il Ma, curated by Alice Ginaldi, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, IT
AnniZero (gruppotredici), Spazio Sottobosco, Milan, IT
Non completamente immemori, curated by Eva Comuzzi and Andrea Bruciati, GC.AC,
Monfalcone, IT
We Can Be Heroes, curated by Andrea Bruciati, 1000eventi gallery, Milan, IT
2009
Studio Visit, curated by Andrea Bruciati, GC.AC, Monfalcone, IT
prizes
2013
Pr emio Furl a, 9th edition, Bologna, IT
2012
LES PROMESSES DE L’A RT, residency program at IIC, Paris, FR
2011
LUM Prize, 2nd edition, Bari, IT
2009 -10
6A RTISTA, residency program at Pastif icio Cerere, Rome, IT
publication
2011
De A rchitecturae Motu, CuraBook
2010
Tomaso De Luca, monographic catalogue, Mousse Publishing
S A L OPP G E S AGT S C H L A PP
2 0 13
In ancient Rome, the forum was the central venue of public life. The most famous of them, the Forum Romanum, now
stands as a ruin in the heart of the city. Despite this nostalgic touch, the word “forum” underwent a significant comeback
in the digital world. In its online version, information, rumors, and polemics are disseminated and deformed without
hierarchy. Private stories and public facts are approached on the same level. As if taken from one of these random online
conversations, the title Salopp Gesagt Schlapp (“casually speaking I’m worn out”) has a clear oral character.
The artist employs formats here that are usually found on the street: most of his pictures were transferred to stickers
or posters and scattered across the entire space. Original artworks are hardly to be seen. De Luca’s experiments with
formats and supports weave urban visual language together with elements from the domestic realm, hence blurring the
boundaries between studio, home, street and exhibition space.
S A LO P P G E S A G T S C H L A P P, 2 014 , w o o d, t i l e s , s t i c k e r s , p o s t e r s , p l a s t i c c o u r ta i n a n d t o w e l s , o i l ,
va r n i s h , g o u a c h e , i n k , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n . d e ta i l .
S A LO P P G E S A G T S C H L A P P, 2 014 , w o o d, t i l e s , s t i c k e r s , p o s t e r s , p l a s t i c c o u r ta i n a n d t o w e l s , o i l ,
va r n i s h , g o u a c h e , i n k , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n . i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at K ü n s t l e r h a u s B r e m e n
S A LO P P G E S A G T S C H L A P P, 2 014 , w o o d, t i l e s , s t i c k e r s , p o s t e r s , p l a s t i c c o u r ta i n a n d t o w e l s , o i l ,
va r n i s h , g o u a c h e , i n k , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n . i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at K ü n s t l e r h a u s B r e m e n
S A LO P P G E S A G T S C H L A P P, 2 014 , w o o d, t i l e s , s t i c k e r s , p o s t e r s , p l a s t i c c o u r ta i n a n d t o w e l s , o i l ,
va r n i s h , g o u a c h e , i n k , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n . i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at K ü n s t l e r h a u s B r e m e n
S A LO P P G E S A G T S C H L A P P, 2 014 , w o o d, t i l e s , s t i c k e r s , p o s t e r s , p l a s t i c c o u r ta i n a n d t o w e l s , o i l ,
va r n i s h , g o u a c h e , i n k , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n . d e ta i l
A N I NC OM PL ET E P ORT R A I T OF A NC H I S E S
2 0 13
The video An incomplete portrait on Anchises consists in a text, written by the artist, projected in pink capital letters
on a red background, sometimes interrupted by loud music and noises on a blu screen. The “poetry” is composed by
descriptions of gym exercises, harassing and inappropriate questions adressed to the spectators, private notes and
observations, and the lyrics of the dance hit of 1996 “Freed From Desire” by Gala. The text is inspired by the legend
of Eneas and Anchises, when the Trojan hero escapes from the city besieged by the Greeks, he carries the old father,
Anchises, on his shoulders. The work aims to question the figure of the Father as institution of power and law, but also as
a disappearing symbol, a loss, something that is “loosing his weight”.
A N I N C O M P L E T E P O R T R A I T O F A N C H I S E S , 2 01 3 , v i d eo c o l o r , 5’ 2 6 ”, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Vo n H o r b o u rg , Zü r i c h , C H
A N I N C O M P L E T E P O R T R A I T O F A N C H I S E S , 2 01 3 , v i d eo c o l o r , 5’ 2 6 ”, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Vo n H o r b o u rg , Zü r i c h , C H
L OV E I S S O F T, B U T H A R D S O M E T I M E S
2 0 13
Love is soft, but hard sometimes (2013), consists in a series of 80 drawings made on small pieces of paper, inserted in
slides and projected on wall. The work, realised especially for the solo show An incomplete portrait of Anchises (2013, at
Von Horbourg, Zürich), takes its cue from the pictorial and sculptural representations of the latin myth in which Eneas
carries the father Anchises on his shoulders. The artist chooses about 50 paintings, statues and etchings, and he draws
details of these representations, focusing his attention on how the two bodies touch each other: one is firmly clung on
the ground while the other is hanging flaccidly. An ambiguous scene is produced, where the myth has no longer its
original meaning and is turned into a sexual intercourse or a fight between two men.
LO V E I S S O F T, B U T H A R D S O M E T I M E S , 2 01 3 , i n k o n pa p e r , s l i d e p ro j ec t i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Vo n H o r b o u rg , Zü r i c h , C H
LO V E I S S O F T, B U T H A R D S O M E T I M E S , 2 01 3 , i n k o n pa p e r , s l i d e p ro j ec t i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Vo n H o r b o u rg , Zü r i c h , C H
LO V E I S S O F T, B U T H A R D S O M E T I M E S , 2 01 3 , i n k o n pa p e r , s l i d e p ro j ec t i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Vo n H o r b o u rg , Zü r i c h , C H
I SLEPT WITH GREEKS
2 0 13
Walter Benjamin said “What didn’t the nineteenth century invent some casing for!”. Afetr this sentence the artist shows a
series of empty glass containers, made opaque by the colours of burnt sienna and black, that rest on a table.
In I Slept with Greeks the vase painting of the classical period seems to melt, while the eye is drawn to the containers’
emptiness. A world domesticated by style is counteracted by the abyss that is revealed inside, that hole which contains
and rejects.
I S L E P T W I T H G R E E K S , 2 01 3 , va r n i s h , g l a s s , m e ta l , w o o d, s t r aw, b r a s s , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w
c o u r t e s y : Fo n d a z i o n e Fu r l a
photo courtesy: Dario L asagni
TRIBAL IS TRIBAL
2 0 12
In the work the artist transforms Thonet’s famous No. 14 chair, the first example of modern furniture, into an exotic
and unknown element, the symptom of a colonial and cannibalistic world. In the drawings, the chair, as an object that
shapes our body and turn it into a cultural emblem, is twisted and multiplied in a series of African Bete masks. The seven
drawings (painted collages and frottages on Taipei rice-paper), suggest a link between furniture and identity.
T I B A L I S T R I B A L , 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , i n k , ta p e , c r ayo n , c h a rc o a l , s p r ay pa i n t a n d c o l l a g e o n r i c e pa p e r ,
4 0x35 cm
T R I B A L I S T R I B A L , 2 01 2 , m i x e d m e d i a , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at o s p e d a l e d eg l i i n n o c e n t i , B o l o g n a , I T
c o u r t e s y : Fo n d a z i o n e Fu r l a
photo courtesy: Dario L asagni
TROPIC A L M A L A DY
2 0 12
The artist draws on a historical research based on the cholera epidemic in Paris in 1832: this event was attributed not only
to the poor classes of the city living in difficult conditions, but also to the people from the overseas colonies, especially
from Haiti, and to the French colonists coming back from the island. The savage invades the colonist’s territory, acting
a disquieting and risky reversal of roles and courses: the infection does not only deal with sanitary issues but above all
with cultural and identitarian ones. The virus is a long-range epidemic, infecting bodies, forms, ways of life, images, and
becoming the vehicle of what is prohibited, of illness and madness.
Starting from these considerations, the artist sets up through his works an intimate encounter between two opposed
poles: on one hand the colonist, the motherland, the urban, stylistic and cultural order of French capital, on the other
hand the savage, the jungle, the contagion of the pathologic and the illicit. The characters of this story are just apparently
neutral objects and actions. In the 57 drawings series several pieces of colonial-style furniture are subjected to subtle
genetic mutations, showing together with their natural eclecticism the signs of an incipient madness, the symptoms of an
illness transforming their identity, gender and function.
T RO P I C A L M A L A DY, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r , 21 x 3 0 c m
T RO P I C A L M A L A DY, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g o u a c h e a n d o i l o n p r i n t e d pa p e r , 21 x 3 0 c m
T RO P I C A L M A L A DY, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , i n k a n d wat e rc o l o r s o n pa p e r , 21 x 3 0 c m
T RO P I C A L M A L A DY, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g o u a c h e a n d i n k o n pa p e r , 21 x 3 0 c m
T RO P I C A L M A L A DY, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r , 21 x 3 0 c m
G E N E ROU S PA L M S T RO K E
2 0 12
For this work the artist focused his interest on a classic symbol, the palmtree. This plant is both an archetype of mercy
and salvation in catholic religion, and also a symbolic model of architecture, in western and eastern cultures: palm is
indeed the main inspiration for column and arch.
In the last five years, in Italy, a palm-eater insect, imported from Africa, started to epidemically destroy this plants: during
his journeys in italian cities, the artist portraited a serie of dead or dying palms, that appeared to him as twisted columns
or deflated arches. He asked himself: if palms, as architectural symbols, can die, what would happen if even architecture
could die?
In this work the palms are drawn on pages ripped out from an american modernist architecture’s book: the connection
between the palmtrees and the buildings is shown stronger than ever. Now the straight and sharp lines of architecture,
rapresented in the pages of the book, turn into a sick environment: not only the plants, but also the concrete buildings,
now seem to rot. But, in drawings, the dying palms almost claim again their symbolic role, whereas the architecture
appears for what it is: an inanimate space.
G E N E RO U S PA L M S T RO K E , 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , i n k o n b o o k pa g e , 24 x 3 3 c m
G E N E RO U S PA L M S T RO K E , 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g o u a c h e a n d c r ayo n o n b o o k pa g e , 24 x 3 3 c m
G E N E RO U S PA L M S T RO K E , 2 01 2 , d e ta i l , g o u a c h e a n d g r a p h i t e o n b o o k pa g e , 24 x 3 3 c m
SA D DISCO STONE MEN
2 0 12
Sad Disco Stone Men approaches the monument as cavity, as a void out of which images can be generated. A serie of 180
slides, concurrently projected on three walls, becomes a mechanism for producing images, visions and ideas. Entering a
space closed off by heavy curtains, the visitor finds himself in an atmosphere saturated with stories and lights: sculptures
transformed into paintings and Modernism into a distinctive catalogue of signs – monuments that exist for only a few
seconds, until the eye, distracted, looks elsewhere. Each slide is a reinvented space for formal analysis, reminiscent in a
way of a microscope slide: tiny sculptural creations take shape on the surface and are activated by light, like ephemeral
paintings on the walls.
Practising a deliberate economy of means, the artist illustrates the tension between two and three dimensions, day and
night, black and white, light and darkness, visibility and blindness, movement and immobility. Traditionally considered a
self-contained object precisely located in time and space, the painting as seen by De Luca becomes a shifting, randomly
orchestrated sequence of exploded, continuously changing apparitions. In this context the noise of the projectors – as a
rule evocative of moments of intimacy – provides a rhythmic backdrop to a different kind of narrative, one whose images
challenge the Modernist tradition as they morph into a stream of personal visions.
S A D D I S C O S TO N E M E N , 2 01 2 , m i x e d m e d i a , 1 8 0 s l i d e s , p ro j ec t i o n , v i e w o f t h e i n s ta l l at i o n at L a
G a l l e r i e , C e n t r e d ’A r t C o n t e m p o r a i n , N o i s y - l e- S ec , p h o t o c o u r t e s y : C e d r i c k Ey m e n i e r
S A D D I S C O S TO N E M E N , 2 01 2 , v i e w o f t h e i n s ta l l at i o n at L a G a l l e r i e , C e n t r e d ’A r t
C o n t e m p o r a i n , N o i s y - l e- S ec , p h o t o c o u r t e s y : C e d r i c k Ey m e n i e r
S A D D I S C O S TO N E M E N , 2 01 2 , v i e w o f t h e i n s ta l l at i o n at L a G a l l e r i e , C e n t r e d ’A r t
C o n t e m p o r a i n , N o i s y - l e- S ec , p h o t o c o u r t e s y : C e d r i c k Ey m e n i e r
S A D D I S C O S TO N E M E N , 2 01 2 , v i e w o f t h e i n s ta l l at i o n at L a G a l l e r i e , C e n t r e d ’A r t
C o n t e m p o r a i n , N o i s y - l e- S ec , p h o t o c o u r t e s y : C e d r i c k Ey m e n i e r
THE MONUMENT
2 0 12
The Monument stems from the artist’s reflection on the migration of architecture and monument, both of which are
inherently static and whose solidity in space generates a safe area within whose confines it is possible to move, observe
and discover. The Monument is an exodus, a retreat that is both frantic and orderly, a disorienting attempt to confer
movement on that which is still. In his drawings – a technique that is by definition laborious – the artist has orchestrated
the flight of 300 Rome’s sculptures and monuments. Statues, either whole or in pieces, run clumsily helter-skelter as they
seek a way to abandon the spaces where they have been confined. De Luca thus creates a disorientation mechanism, a
place where reference points are continuously shifting and where monuments – that have become more akin to interior
archetypes – subvert coordinates at their every movement. Like an ‘architect of uncertainty’, theartist produces a minimal
yet powerful mutation: instead of ruins, he has scattered active subjects within space – monsters that turn in circles, that
oscillate, poised in a movement that is about to happen or which may never take place.
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l (c a r b o n o n pa p e r , 24 x 3 0 c m)
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l (i n k a n d c o l l a g e o n pa p e r , 24 x 3 0 c m)
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l (g r a p h i t e a n d i n k o n pa p e r , 24 x 3 0 c m)
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l (i n k a n d g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r , 1 8 x 21 c m)
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , d e ta i l (i n k a n d c o l l a g e o n pa p e r , 1 8 x 21 c m)
T H E M O N U M E N T, 2 01 2 , m i x e d m e d i a o n pa p e r , e n v r i o n m e n ta l d i m e n s i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
Monitor, Rome
F L OAT I N G (3 0 G IOR N I P E R S P O S TA R E U N A C OL ON N A)
2 0 11
The idea of this work takes its cue from Saint Nicholas’ column, a relic treasured in the Saint’s crypt, in Bari.
Legend has it that this column was part of a noble Roman palace which got demolished. Together with other rubble, it
was thrown into the Tiber, and interestingly enough, it had been seen floating in Rome instead of drowning.
In Floating (30 days to move a column), I overlapped two layers - the sacred and the profane - of “affection for stone”: on
one hand the column’s legend, on the other the ritual cleaning of chianche, a particular kind of Apulian limestone slabs
which constitute the road surface of the historical centre of Bari, which are cleaned daily by local women.
This work reproduces the shape of Saint Nicholas’ column (made in cement), lying horizontally on a soap base.
During the exhibition period in Teatro Margherita, one of the local women came to “clean” the column,
the same way as she is used to clean the chianche. She did it 30 times.
The soap, melting little by little, made the sculpture move from its original position, giving the impression that the
column is floating, just the way the legend says.
F LO AT I N G ( 3 0 G I O R N I P E R S P O S TA R E U N A C O LO N N A), 2 011 , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n
(c e m e n t, s o a p, p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t, b u c k e t, i n k o n pa p e r)
F LO AT I N G ( 3 0 G I O R N I P E R S P O S TA R E U N A C O LO N N A), 2 011 , d e ta i l (p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t
r ec o r d i n g t h e p e r f o r m a n c e)
MOV EM EN T / MON UM EN T
2 0 11
During the bombings of July 19th 1943, the district of San Lorenzo in Rome was almost completely razed to the ground.
The survivors decided to move and many of them occupied Villa Torlonia, until shortly before the residence of the
Mussolini family. Wanting to create an anti-monument that could be moved from San Lorenzo to Villa Torlonia, I decided
to take a classic equestrian statue as an example. To twist the shape and the concept of this triumphant image into
something different, I turned the sculpture into a lame horse. The performance consists in the march, carried out by
some high school students from Rome who got involved in the project, tying small scraps of marble (a typical produce of
San Lorenzo) to one of their shoes. The 2 km route is walked limping. This way the monument becomes experience.
M O V E M E N T/ M O N U M E N T, 2 011 , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n (v i d eo b/ w 6 ’ 3 3 ”, m a r b l e , a s h ,
p l a s t i c t i e s , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t s)
M O V E M E N T/ M O N U M E N T, 2 011 , v i d eo s t i l l
M O V E M E N T/ M O N U M E N T, 2 011 , v i d eo s t i l l
L’ I N C O R O N A Z I O N E ( 4 0 F A L L I M E N T I )
2 0 11
The Coronation (40 failures), emerges from the reflection on the loser, the one who celebrates their defeat. The artist
made a crown in copper and then portrayed himself forty times while trying to wear this object in different ways. The
object of celebration, the crown of Cæsar, is turned into something incoherent, useless, contrary to its positive and
monumental value. It is necessary to celebrate the defeat, to detect and assimilate the shadows, to oppose our own
capacity of being losers to a pattern of victories and successes. Experiencing a disaster is a seed of diversity.
L’ I N C O RO N A Z I O N E (4 0 FA L L I M E N T I ), 2 011 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r
L’ I N C O RO N A Z I O N E (4 0 FA L L I M E N T I ), 2 011 , d e ta i l , s a n g u i g n a o n pa p e r
L’ I N C O RO N A Z I O N E (4 0 FA L L I M E N T I ), 2 011 , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n , m i x e d m e d i a o n pa p e r , w o o d,
c o p p e r , b r a s s , c a n va s , i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at 2 6 C C , R o m e , p h o t o c o u r t e s y E l i s a S e p e d e
R I S E A N D FA L L
2 0 11
Rise and Fall is a small monument. Two celebrative wreaths, usually resting on war memorials, stripped of bayberry, are
now plated with brass and varnish, finding in that way their own independence as monuments. One of the crowns is
pointing up whereas the other is upside down. This double dialog creates a monument which celebrates the rise and fall
of a inner regime of the artist himself, a personal empire doomed to the defeat.
R I S E A N D FA L L , 2 011 , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n , w o o d, f e r n , b r a s s , va r n i s h , c l a m p s
D I C I A S S E T T E ( 17 A U T O R T I T R A T T I S U L L A S C H I E N A )
2 0 10
Diciassette [Seventeen] is a project that starts from a photograph of Antonin Artauld, taken while he was at the mental
hospital. Sitting on a bench outside the psychiatric facility, he keeps a pencil in his hand and pushes its tip against his
backbone, as if he were exerting a supportive pressure, or a destructive one. Fascinated by this dimension of the front
and its rear, by the dissolution of an image and the sensorial dimension of the act of drawing, the artist roughly installed
a cosmetic mirror in front of himself, then installed a paper on his back using two paperclips, and drew seventeen selfportraits on his back. Each drawing has a performing aspect, and carries a value of front and rear overlapped. Seventeen
monsters living between the “fore” and the “back”.
D I C I A S S E T T E ( 17 A U TO R I T R AT T I S U L L A S C H I E N A), 2 010 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r , 24 x 3 0 c m
D I C I A S S E T T E ( 17 A U TO R I T R AT T I S U L L A S C H I E N A), 2 010 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r , 24 x 3 0 c m
D I C I A S S E T T E ( 17 A U TO R I T R AT T I S U L L A S C H I E N A), 2 010 , d e ta i l , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t
IO C OM E U N C ERVO MORTO
2 0 10
The deer is one of the animals defeated by Hercules in the famous labors. It is the incarnation of the defeated enemy,
and subtly of a defeated and losing male gender. The five drawings, attached as little totems/sculptures with black linen
tape, represent five dead deers (mostly hunting trophies) whereas in the pictures the artist performed the same pose of
the portrayed animals.
I O C O M E U N C E RV O M O R TO, 2 010 , m i x e d m e d i a o n pa p e r , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t s , ta p e , e x h i b i t i o n
v i e w, Fa b b r i c a d e l Va p o r e , M i l a n , P h o t o C o u r t e s y : C at e r i n a Vi g a n ò
I O C O M E U N C E RV O M O R TO, 2 010 , d e ta i l , g r a p h i t e o n pa p e ro n pa p e r a n d p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t,
va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n s
10 0 T E S T E PE R U N C AC C I ATOR E
2 0 10
The work takes its cue from the head of the statue Il Cacciatore (The Hunter, Michele Tiliacos 1936), a forgotten sculpture
from the Fascist era. The sculpture was photographed by a group of historians in 2009 and published on newspapers,
but when the artist visited the site where the statue lies, its head was completely covered in vegetation.
The artist draws this “invisible” head a hundred times, misshaping and multiplying the monumental reality and the
marginal existence of the sculpture.
10 0 T E S T E P E R U N C A C C I ATO R E , 2 010 , m i x e d m e d i a o n pa p e r , va r i a b l e d i m e n s i o n , i n s ta l l at i o n
v i e w at Fo n d a z i o n e S a n d r e t t o R e R e b a u d e n g o , Tu r i n , M ay 2 01 2
10 0 T E S T E P E R U N C A C C I ATO R E , 2 010 , d e ta i l (h e a d 3 7 ), g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r
10 0 T E S T E P E R U N C A C C I ATO R E , 2 010 , d e ta i l (h e a d 3 7 ), b l a c k p i g m e n t o n pa p e r
10 0 T E S T E P E R U N C A C C I ATO R E , 2 010 , d e ta i l (h e a d 7 5 ), g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r
10 0 T E S T E P E R U N C A C C I ATO R E , 2 010 , d e ta i l (h e a d 8 9 ), g r a p h i t e o n pa p e r
THE SLEEPERS
2 0 10
The Sleepers aims at making the visual encounter of two male figures become true by setting into stone their mutual
relation in space, subverting and increasing the connection between space and representation.
Two sleeping statues: Il Cacciatore (“The hunter, Michele Tiliacos, 1936), set in the vicinity of Villa Madama in Rome
(and covered by vegetation until the end of 2009), and “Il Bigio” (Arturo Dazzi, 1932), which originally stood in Piazza
della Vittoria in Brescia, whereas it has been lying horizontally in a communal warehouse of the city since 1945. These
two forgotten examples of monumental sculpture changed their meaning thanks to fragmentation of the language which
takes places by building their relationship.
Two paintings portray the sculptures, traced on objects that resemble shields, have been carried by the artist in front of
the actual statues, taking each one in front of the other’s eyesight.
T H E S L E E P E R S , 2 010 , 6 e l e m e n t s , 7 0 x 10 0 c m e a c h , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t s
T H E S L E E P E R S , 2 010 , 6 e l e m e n t s , 7 0 x 10 0 c m e a c h , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t s
T H E S L E E P E R S , 2 010 , 6 e l e m e n t s , 7 0 x 10 0 c m e a c h , p h o t o g r a p h i c p r i n t s
HOR I ZON TA L FA S C I S M
2009
During the Fascism Ventennio the architecture, either popular and commemorative, changed radically the Italian visual
structure. The idea of verticality established on different levels the actual fulcrum of the Fascism itself, and it visually
represented its real strength. This work – consisting of 12 paintings on wood – aims to replace the concept of a vertical
with the one of a horizontal, which is undoubtedly unconnected with the process of building and in a way incompatible
with the painting. Changing a visual perspective also implicates change in the historical point of view, while the action of
pulling down the totem causes a trauma to the perception and exposes the object of power.
H O R I ZO N TA L FA S C I S M , 2 0 0 9 , 1 2 e l e m e n t s , 2 0 x 10 c m e a c h , g o u a c h e o n w o o d, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at
10 0 0 e v e n t i g a l l e ry, M i l a n , P h o t o C o u r t e s y : L a u r a Fa n ta c u z z i
H O R I ZO N TA L FA S C I S M , 2 0 0 9 , d e ta i l , g o u a c h e o n w o o d, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at 10 0 0 e v e n t i g a l l e ry,
M i l a n , P h o t o C o u r t e s y : L a u r a Fa n ta c u z z i
H O R I ZO N TA L FA S C I S M , 2 0 0 9 , g o u a c h e o n w o o d, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at 10 0 0 e v e n t i g a l l e ry, M i l a n ,
P h o t o C o u r t e s y : L a u r a Fa n ta c u z z i
L A SCHIENA NON MI SERV E
2008
This recorded performance is a research about the body intended as a connection between an inner and an outer world,
between supporting and “reacting” parts. The re-appropriation of a boundlessness of the body goes from the inside to
the outside, from anus to mouth, from belly to penis. Every “class” of the body is experimented, analyzed and studied
aside from eroticism and organism. Nothing is localized anymore; the body is scattered, wide open, forgetful and able to
gain experience without thought. As Antonin Artaud said, “the body thinks.”
L A S C H I E N A N O N M I S E RV E , 2 0 0 8 , v i d eo c o l o r / d v d, 11’ 1 5”, i n s ta l l at i o n v i e w at 2 6 c c , R o m e
L A S C H I E N A N O N M I S E RV E , 2 0 0 8 , v i d eo c o l o r / d v d, 11’ 1 5”, v i d eo s t i l l
L A S C H I E N A N O N M I S E RV E , 2 0 0 8 , v i d eo c o l o r / d v d, 11’ 1 5”, v i d eo s t i l l
M O N I TO R
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