Projecting History into the Future - text by Anna Engberg-Pedersen, Berlin 2007


Precariously perched on top of each other, six rings of tiles constitute the body of Gianluca Malgeri's most recent work-in-progress. The fragile tower is topped with a few broken tiles that allow the average height visitor (or taller) a glimpse into its interior. This is lit by numerous small candles, reminding one of the rows of candles in Catholic churches, at once humble and intense.

With this work, Malgeri continues his explorations of the tiled stove as an object of inquiry, as earlier seen in Torre di Ishstar (2004), Faro di Alessandria (2006), and Torre di Arianna (2006). Together, the four sculptures constitute not only the investigation of a generic form, but could also be considered as building elements for a larger structure, perhaps even the pillars of a new urban utopian architecture. Another component part of this endeavour is Malgeri's Amphora (2007). His interest in architecture is apparent in collages such as Città del sole (2004), in which he has assembled photographs of cut-out tiles and carpets to form a complex and intricate spatial structure. Layer upon layer, yet simply arranged and with economic means, the collage charts an architectural vision that becomes a subtle backdrop for the towers.

In Malgeri's sculpture, the standard stove's blazing fire is exchanged for the gentle shimmering and heat of the candles, associated with cosyness rather than practical function. An inhabitant of intimate and domestic spheres, the tiled stove is an everyday object. But in Malgeri's version, the everyday is coupled with the foreign: he does not attempt to level out the cracks; he refuses the seamlessness of sleek contemporary design. Instead, his work is a poetic gesture, drawing on the tradition of Arte Povera and its focus on linking life and art. The domestic tiles, varying in colour, pattern, and size, are joined to create new assemblages that preserve disjunction and fragility at their core.

An Italian living in Berlin, Malgeri’s relation to the tiles that were formerly used for German tiled stoves is that of a stranger, an observer, and a craftsman who is only partially acquainted with the tradition into which he ventures. The artist describes his work as an instance of pseudo-archaeology: what initiated the entire tower project was the finding of a stone fragment in the streets of Berlin. But instead of digging in an archaeological site, he has been dealing with a tradesman: the pile of tiles of which the towers have been created was bought from a local second-hand dealer.

As a visionary archaeologist, Malgeri investigates our memory of the objects through his imaginary associations, piecing fragments together, and unfolding possible narratives. His structures are thus not faithful reconstructions of a bygone era, but the projection of history into the future through new structures that outline his visionary open-ended world. The found fragment is kept and presented in a glass reliquary.





















Gianluca Malgeris work is related to his immediate surrounding. He sees „reality“ as material, which is transformed by the subjectiv view of the artist.

The interventions and actions of Gianluca Malgeri follow to main- strategies:

On one side his work could be seen as an intervention directly in his surrounding: In this sense his works is „public“. The author stays anonym.
On the other side the material or the event get transformed and re-defined in an other place (in the interior) where they are anlysed.

His works calls in question the definition of „public space“, of „Intimicy“ and „Privacy“ : does privacy still need four walls? Is the kitchen, the sleeping-room not already a „public space“?
Gianluca Malgeri uses sketches, drawings, watercolors and collages to present his projects and ideas and to project his perception of the space into a two-dimensional form.

Berlin, September 21, 2004
Franz Ackermann
















2004 “Was ist mener whoung wenn ich nict da bin?” curated by Cheggel end C.Rekade, Berlin.

1) <> 1974 in Reggio Calabria, Italy- lives in venice and Florence
Gianluca Malgeri intervenes inpublic space . His work is almost
unnoticeable and appears where no one expects to find it. He will
make minor alteration in anadvertisement or in other areas of
puts a twist on the given message. He, so to speak, under-
mines public consciousness andthereby becomes politically
active. For example, he snuck hisown portrait into a row of heades
in a Benetton advertisement, which bwas barely detectable
except for the static facial expression . By calling to mind the well-
known media image of a “ mugshot”, he passed judgment on
the company, while on the other hand, calling to question the
critical control of a superficially autonomus public. His spazial
interventions also employ subtle changes that effectively draw
attention to habits pertaining to inside space and one’s movement
therein. Here too, the relazion of man with his environment is
questionned

































What I know of Luca Malgeri’s work makes him a very intriguing artist to my eyes and objectively he is an original one compared to the research lines of the young contemporary Italian artists.
His work always has a kind of double register. By one side he has an attention and a unconventional glance at everything in his personal vision looks like myth – art, artists, fashion and power, above all power of suggestion that those things seem to represent. By the other side his will of intervention that measure itself through its capacities, intended like the result of a forming process, built on attitudes, sensibility and direct experiences jealously personal.
On these two registers Malgeri sets his work, producing works that, instead of bringing to a settlement, keep the differences that often appear like frictions. It is right on these frictions that the most characterising aspect of his art consists, character related to the minority, the clandestinity, the unsuited, the unexpected and surprising. He was born in the suburbs, his subsequent and irregular displacements toward the centers didn’t alter and still do not alter the relation that each time he tries to establish with what surrounded him. This relationship remains most of the time a kind of prudent approach more than acculturated appropriation, in self-respect and respect of the others without interruption.
His using different techniques, from photography to drawing, from installation to collage, helps this development and make it light and autonomous from every point of view.
His possible operative staying in a city such as New York will continue and stimulate his artistic journey, meeting both the interest that since the beginning have been motivating him and enriching him in the right sense he is thinking about, interest and sense that I tried to briefly describe in the lines above.

Pier Luigi Tazzi,Capalle 7 maggio 2005.