Luca Vanello. Moist Muscles Await

Humanity’s relentless attempts to control time and this way achieve immortality are reflected in Vanello’s long-year research. The objects exhibited in ‘Moist Muscles Await’ can be defined as abstract sculptural processes and results of various physical manipulations, emancipated from any kind of symbolism. Functioning as an ecosystem, they escape the anthropocentric vision of the world and enable us to take a fragmental look at the precariousness of existence.

In his research-informed creative process, Vanello deforms non-human entities and matter by exploring their social, technological and biological implications. Plants, inanimate objects and images are all seen as part of the same organic whole that merges with the surrounding social fields. By employing physical manipulation as a conceptual tool, the artist entwines collective and individual narratives with material modifications. In his diverse sculptural processes, he reverses history-filled everyday objects back into their original states, as if trying to turn back time. By removing the plants’ chlorophyll, Vanello suspends their biological circulation and stops the life cycle. Objects created with the help of manipulation form a unified system in the exhibition, in which the vulnerability of matter, imperfection and the temporality of existence can be perceived.

Luca Vanello (b. 1986) is an Italian-Slovene artist who lives and works between Berlin and Brussels. He graduated from Universität der Künste in Berlin and obtained his Master’s degree at the London Slade School of Fine Arts. The artist has had eighteen personal exhibitions across Italy, Germany, UK, Belgium, Slovenia and Lithuania and is actively participating in group shows worldwide. In 2017, he was nominated for the Brachum Kunstpreis, in 2015, shortlisted for the Adrian Carruthers Award and in 2013, for the Schulz Stübner Preis.

Image: Luca Vanello, Moist Muscles Await, exhibition view, 2019