Renato Calaj's 'Transeunte' at Contemporary Cluster in Rome

Contemporary Cluster in Rome hosts 'Transeunte', the first solo exhibition in the city by Albanian-born artist Renato Calaj (Fier, 1992). The show explores themes of boundary crossing, reconfiguration, trace, and impermanence through site-specific post-minimalist works. Calaj's hybrid compositions, blending sculpture and installation, incorporate tubes and other urban materials to evoke city scaffolding—skeletons of distant or future dwellings. These are paired with large carpets, transforming the exhibition spaces into non-places, transitional zones. The artist's technique of 'pittura a impronta' (imprint painting) references Toti Scialoja and Mario Schifano's anemic landscapes, with a visual lexicon of enigmatic numbers suggesting meditative layering. Calaj's approach shifts from urban style toward a more intimate, protective aesthetic, offering stripped-down chromatic and architectural memories that evoke a nostalgia for the non-human. The exhibition is curated by Francesca de Paolis.