Verona 1988

Lives in Berlin

Tomaso De Luca explores the interaction between the architectural space and the body that passes through it, emphasizing the way urban architectures and infrastructures define coercive mechanisms that regulate movement.

With Die Schlüssel des Schlosses (The Keys of the Castle, 2020), De Luca proposes an analysis of the space of power. The artist builds an unfinished structure reminiscent of the pavilion designed by Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona. Maquettes of contemporary castles coexist with the atmosphere of one-room apartments and prefabricated buildings in De Luca’s pavilion. The installation comments on the different living conditions on the planet, increasingly marked by architecture. On one side, the gated community model, entire neighborhoods designed for the wealthy, protected by walls like fortresses and bulwarks of privilege; on the other, the prefabricated unit, a cheap standard designed as a temporary solution that often becomes a permanent residence. In an opening of the pavilion, a video shows distorted plans of Palazzo delle Esposizioni, manipulated by De Luca to affirm symbolic guerrilla actions through which the economic gap in today’s society can be conquered.