BERLIN.- Domenico Romeo’s sculptures are living structures that, in dialogue with the space, draw paths, trace trajectories, and invite the viewer to recognize himself in them and undertake one or multiple spatial experiences. The installation opens up a different set of possibilities through the uncertainty given by the presence of a crossroad (a dividing wall) and the consequent difference of experience according to the choice of path taken that may or may not lead to a giant "casket keeper" an impenetrable tower, three meters high, which perhaps holds the mystery of a revealing secret.

The form of Romeo’s work is abstract in the extreme but contains a great deal of linguistic information - industrial development, urbanisation, norms and individuality. A high degree of equilibrium can also be seen in Romeo's work, in which the rectangular hard steel assemblage seeks a balance at the level of industrial society between individuality and collective balance, nature and spirit, matter and consciousness.

Domenico Romeo’s embodied work confronts the complex history and innate interconnection of structure and body, architecture and experience, identity and symbols. As he traces the path to an ancestral revelation trough his modular structures, the artist introduces a sense of universal unity and ongoing transformation which is the ultimate meaning of his work. Fundamental in this sense also turns out to be the decision to codify all his exhibitions and work that always take on an anthropomorphic connotation. Beginning from the title of this series – where ANM stands for "Souls" (“Anime” in Italian) – these structures seem to indicate a real body made of bones (the soul of steel) skin (the fabric) and soul (in essence and thus in name), which functions by a solidarity among the elements and becomes almost like a living structure/organism and thus no longer just elements but a system. Thus, coding in relation to the system acquires a fundamental meaning in Romeo’s work. Thinking about organs, for example, we know what they are as themselves and their function but only when put in relation to the human body - as a system - they can come to life, but as something that is different from them individually, they become a unit (which in this case takes on the figure of man) but still existing as such and as themselves (heart, lungs etc etc).




ANM_20_1/1_TR_22 The tight vertical line structure is connected by horizontal steel bars like a strong wall divided the space. Same length, uniform thickness. The lines are closely connected to form a rational story chapter. The seemingly random fabric on the other side brings an element of instability to the definite structure, softening the hardness and coldness of the steel and creating a rhythmic breathing air. The fabric, on the other hand, is hard and has a gleaming black sheen. His ANM_21_3/3_CL_22 und ANM_23_4/4_CL_22 reflect the same inventive approach. It has a strong personality that is understated, self-conscious, and craves for attention.

ANM_22_1/1_TR_22, located in the back of the exhibition space, is a tower in the process of being built, with each level of square metal blocks replicating the next. The replicated structure forms the basis for a robust building and the possibility of development. These substances influence the way we live in urban society, as Karl Marx writes in his Basis und Überbau: The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. In the midst of the rapid rise of cities, there is perhaps a greater need for a philosophical, cultural, political and self-conscious ascent beyond the material. The artist aims to provoke the viewer to reflect on the deep structure of society and its interactions.

Crosses and nylon flags, appear here before us composing a synthetic forest of intersections, multiple and irregular, representing the inseparable and ever-changing union between spirit, body and space within the virtually infinite feed of the contemporary horizon. Metal structures that form a skeleton with an essence; fabric flags as the skin, leading to a discovery. Overall, a body is configured with its dress and the artist, through his gestural alphabet – specifically through the stubbornly repeated crossing of the metallic elements – also scrutinizes his narrative of the anti-symbol - and in doing so resorts by antithesis to the primordial symbol: "the Cross". Archetype par excellence, present in all civilizations and religions the cross is the direct expression of a common language that has always been shared in the collective memory.

And are specifically the shared “languages” and “ideals” that become flags, under which those who are similar gather - but the dual nature of symbols unites as divide (since the symbol is always already loaded with meaning). The symbol specifically signals the gap between what unites and what divides. In Domenico Romeo the flag, which generally exist as something apt to identify (thus already carry an identity), is deprived of any symbol by becoming pure form, is the antithesis of itself so unlike the pure “symbol” (which inevitably points to something already overloaded with meaning), the “form” by its nature is still indeed identifiable but never definitive, consequently open to new interpretations.