Danilo Correale uses a broad range of techniques and expressive instruments such as photography, video and collaborative processes that draw on the collective imagination, popular culture and the contemporary media landscape to open up new interpretative paths through which one can approach the production modes of today’s subjectivity. His work revolves around a critique of the institutions that govern our society, from cultural ones to those directly tied to the economic system. Financial capitalism and the mechanisms of power that regulate its balances are central to the research of this artist, who has recently concentrated on the corporate aesthetic and the way in which it is reflected on society. The project conceived for Peep-Hole is part of this research and consists of a representation of global economic relations through the use of industrial fabrics as the metaphor for “warp and weft” on which the flows of the financial system are based. The Warp and the Weft consists of the production of five different tartan fabrics presented through a single large installation that dominates the first room of the exhibition space. Each of the tartans designed by the artist is composed of a series of colours chosen strictly based on the corporate colours of the logos of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. The five tartans distinguish various “clans” in a visible interweaving ready for a new transformation and introduction on the market. The five fabrics represent codes that refer directly to different geographical areas where the institutions are present with more influential economic assets: North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. 

The choice of tartan plaid is also tied to the nature and history of this fabric, which has always identified appurtenance to a restricted group of individuals, be it on a family, athletic or corporate level. Typical of Scottish clans, who adopted the characteristic colours of their geographical possessions to define their own exclusive fabric, tartan was historically used on the battlefield to distinguish the individual clans. Even today many families and companies have one that distinguishes them like a unique and original signature. This fabric is closely connected with golf, an elite sport that, more than any other, represents a status, and whose informal context is increasingly tied to political and economic dynamics. The Warp and the Weft is part of the cycle commenced in 2010 with the video The Surface of My Eye is Deeper than the Ocean (Pareto Optimality, Supportico Lopez, Berlin, 2011), followed by the exhibition We Have a Business Proposal … (Raucci/Santamaria, Naples, 2012), devoted to investigating the relationship between linguistics and economics, an embryonic study based on the method of verifying and translating gestures tied to the instruments with which contemporary subjectivity is established. The common thread linking these projects is the study of the most symbolic aspect through which the diseases of the capitalistic system become tangible in various areas of our society and the identification of codes that tend to open a new dialogue with the typical inaccessibility of power, a dialogue through which we can launch a process to regain possession of language, symbols and words.

Danilo Correale (b. Naples, 1982; lives and works in London) earned a degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies in 2006 at the NABA Fine Arts Academy of Milan. He has participated in numerous collective exhibitions, including the Moscow International Biennial for Young Art, Moscow (2012); Sotto la strada la spiaggia, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, (2012); Enacting Populism, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (2012); Manifesta 8: The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Murcia (2010); Sindrome Italiana, Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (2010); Emerging Talents, Fondazione Strozzina, Florence (2008). Solo shows include We Have a Business Proposal of …, Raucci/Santamaria, Naples (2012); Pareto Optimality, Supportico Lopez, Berlin (2011); We Are Making History, Entrée, Bergen (2011); How much art can you take?, Spazio Chan, Genoa (2009). Correale has held several residencies: International Fellowship, VIII Festival de Performance de Cali – Helena Producciones, Colombia (2012); Mazama Art Residence, Seattle (2011); Corso Superiore di Arti Visive Fondazione Ratti, Como (2010); Fondazione Spinola Banna (2010); Night School Program, Seminarium with Raqs Media Collective, New Museum, New York (2009).