1979-1982

A personal memory that the artist has decided to render public, Lucamaleonte presents a rare work exploring his past. A past that overlaps with the building that hosts it, his artistic intervention blurs the line between public and private. The barracks is a space he knows well, a place from his memories, a place where his grandfather was, for many years, the director. For this reason the Roman artist has decided to evoke his grandfather’s inauguration and retirement from office through his welcome and farewell speeches, here recited by his father.

The photograph that dominates the room transports us to that day and demonstrates his grandfather’s view from the stage, with his colleagues and subordinates in the audience. In the adjacent room a triptych reveals his grandfather dressed in a general’s uniform, his face hidden by a hexahedron, one of the artist’s signatures. The first figure is simply sketched out, as if a ghost, while the last one is completely defined. His grandfather’s emergence from the walls of the barracks represents time that has passed, as well as his own personal memory of his grandfather, a memory that ties him to this place.