Domenico Romeo / Drama of the indefinite

Domenico Romeo / Drama of the Indefinite

Artist and designer Domenico Romeo in conversation with Maria Abramenko

A conversation with the artist and designer who creates an infinite universe of signs, symbols and matter through his works; the components of his art function exactly like the letters of an alphabet: perceived as a whole, constitute a language in it’s own right. Domenico Romeo talks about his art in a conversation with Maria Abramenko

How did you start making art?

I’ve always needed to do. I have always drawn and somehow built. But especially, I did it following an ideal coherence. I’m obsessed with finite systems like alphabets that are capable of generating infinite drifts through the unpredictable combinations of their elements. I still don’t know how to define what is art and what is not. I keep doing.

Every time I see your works (especially recent series) I think NIN. Where does this industrial darkness come from?

You are right to think NIN. Although it is not my direct reference, industrial music in general is part of my DNA and therefore it shines through in my works. I want to tell the drama of the indefinite, the never accomplished, the unrealized, all possible but unexpressed. All that is life, an eternal potential phase in which one strives towards something, but then death comes.

Tell us about your recent collab with KUBORAUM?

KUBORAUM is family for me. The collaboration is therefore constant and does not end with a single event. We are very close friends with the guys from the brand and we share various passions such as certain music and clubbing. I was honored to take part in the celebration event for their 10 years in business. I built a 2.5 meters high iron and fabric totem inside the Tresor in Berlin which for us (techno addicted) is Mecca.

Now the sculpture is installed in their headquarters in Köpenicker Str. 96 in Berlin. It is an anthropomorphic structure where the iron frame resembles a spine and the tattered fabric, its skin, partially covers it. It is a sculpture that places the viewer in front of the continuous question of whether it is a body in the process of being formed or in the process of decomposition.

Please name some artists, actors, writers you are inspired by and tell us why?

The one and only who has ever truly inspired me is Heraclitus the Obscure. His philosophy is cryptic and ambiguous. It raises many questions. All that I try to replicate in my works.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am still developing my system in iron and technical fabric that appeared in my recent exhibitions with which I build my sculptures. I have a couple of events in the next six months, one of which involves the interaction of matter with electronic music. I also announce a massive return to painting.