Thomas De Falco: The Cement Garden

Palazzo Monti hosts Thomas De Falco, a French artist.
Inspired by Ian McEwan’s 1978 novel The Cement Garden, Thomas De Falco in these new works explores the dimension of childhood and adolescence using a novel and captivating colour palette. This new production is the result of a very contemporary trauma: the covid.

The performative aspect in De Falco‘s work is essential because it visually and plastically underlines that special interpenetration of the work with the plant world that has always been the pivotal element of his aesthetic. One of his distinctive features is the wrapping, long strips of knotted fabric that were used to bind and connect the naked bodies of the performers to the works, thus creating a total symbiosis between humanity, nature, and weaving understood as a creative act of transformation.

Thomas De Falco‘s artistic practice falls within the sphere of “feminine” activities. What is also revolutionary, therefore, is the decision by a white male artist to make art using this technique and thus deconstruct a dominant narrative that has always considered the art of embroidery and weaving nothing more than an applied art reserved for women.