Castelli in Voelklingen

If – to borrow loosely from Jean Baudrillard – the (post-)industrial city remains “the sphere of the production of the sign”, then Matteo Fluido from Genoa produces elements of the city from these signs. It all began with graffiti letters; these, too, are often designed as quasi-architectural elements, featuring all manner of arches, joints, apertures, plinths, structural elements, tie bars and struts.
In any case, urban art has always entertained a close relationship to architecture, which provides it with its canvas and its playing field. Fluido’s graphical constructions, evocative of industrial architecture, mark one possible logical development that can be drawn from the practice and formal language of urban art.
Surprisingly, his architectural extensions fit just as well with drawings of baroque English country castles as they do with – more obviously – historical photographs of the Völklingen Ironworks. Are we witnessing a possible future based on the foundations of industrialisation? Or a past – once possible – utopia that time has left behind and of which now only a visualisation remains?

Robert Kaltenhäuser / Daniel Bauer