Luciano Castelli. Revolving Paintings

About

On 28 October, 2017, the art project From White to White, jointly organized by the Galerie Deschler, will open at the historic Kaufhaus Jandorf at Brunnenstrasse 19-21 in Berlin-Mitte. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be comprised of monumental wall paintings, spanning two floors, by the internationally renowned artist Luciano Castelli, complemented by his video installations and photographs. The Ball Room will premier large-format works, measuring 2 x 3 meters, from the acclaimed series "Rudel" by Berlin photographer Sven Marquardt. In the evenings the impressive space of the Jandorf will be venue for live concerts by Yellow Lounge, the band Automat and Bettina Köster (formerly Malaria), screenings of films by Miron Zownir, Keiichi Matsuda and others, as well as further activities.

In 2016, Castelli spontaneously and directly painted the entire interior of the SPSI Art Museum in Shanghai, thus radically (and literally) breaking out of the conventional frame of painting. He mastered the enormous challenge with regard to painting and spatial conception with his typical, very gestural, almost calligraphic brushstroke. At the Kaufhaus Jandorf Castelli will again paint directly on the structural elements of the building, thus merging his painting with walls, columns and staircases into a total work of art. The multi- dimensionality of some of the works renders them complete only from specific vantage points, thus actively engaging the viewer in the creation. This process will be completed at the end of the week-long exhibition with the whitewashing of his painting: from white to white. In this manner Castelli not only foregrounds the transience of all creation, but again demonstrates his own flexibility and spontaneity, his particular talent of again and again reacting to specific situations and creating something new, and in the process reinventing himself.

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The Swiss artist Luciano Castelli had his artistic break-through early on, being the youngest participant in the 1972 Documenta 5 at Kassel. After relocating to Berlin in 1978, he, alongside Rainer Fetting and Salomé, actively contributed to the painting of the so-called "Neue Wilde." He subsequently moved beyond this painting style to develop new artistic approaches. With his project From White to White he returns to where he had been active as an artist early on, to Berlin. Castelli works in various mutually complementary media: painting, photography, film, music, and sculpture. The focus of his work is on self- dramatization, giving palpable form to characteristics, emotions, and roles: on the stage set by himself he is at the same time both actor and subject-matter.

The atrium of the Kaufhaus Jandorf will feature photographs by Sven Marquardt printed on large tarpaulins. With his distinctive appearance and as a doorman of the famous Berghain club Marquardt, who had been trained as a fashion photographer, has become widely known beyond Berlin as a symbol of the city. As early as the 1980s, even before the Berlin Wall came down, he started portraying the East-Berlin art and gay scene in expressive black-and-white photography. After a creative break following the German reunification he resumed this work in 2000. Since then he has established international reputation with exhibitions and publications. On view at the Kaufhaus Jandorf will be striking black-and-white portraits of doormen from his acclaimed series "Rudel."

Concurrent to the exhibition at the Kaufhaus Jandorf the Galerie Deschler will present Luciano Castelli in a solo exhibition on two floors in its own space, opening already on 19 October, 2017. Unlike at the Jandorf the show will feature individual canvases and works on paper spanning three decades. Here the focus will be on Castelli's Revolving Paintings, a particular form he developed in Paris after moving there in 1989. Inspired by the multicultural complexity of the metropolis, the images are readable from various angles. Continuously new images are created by revolving the paintings. In the gallery, they will be spatially extended with wall paintings. Castelli thus once more expands the tight limits of conventional painting. On the lower level the paintings will be complemented by photography series and video works from various periods of Castelli's career.