Thomas De Falco's 'Nature' at Triennale Milano: Textile Sculpture and Performance

On November 29, 2017, Triennale Design Museum in Milan opened 'Nature', a solo exhibition by young artist Thomas De Falco, curated by Laura Cherubini. The show was inaugurated by 'Intricacy', a performance and textile installation. De Falco, a graduate in contemporary tapestry from Scuola Superiore d’Arte Applicata del Castello Sforzesco di Milano, presented 24 wall-hung works tracing his artistic evolution from two-dimensional tapestry with sculptural elements to three-dimensional wrapping and textile sculpture. His work blends textile materials (cotton, hemp, silk, sailor's rope) with metal (iron, copper) and natural elements (leaves, roots). The performance, accompanied by an abstract marimba composition, features five performers with closed eyes moving for 90 minutes, exploring themes of presence and absence of mother nature and social equilibrium. De Falco's research notebooks, exhibited for the first time, contain woven leaves, hair, and notes. The review by Carolina Mancini critiques the performance's socio-political ambition as insufficiently engaged with contemporary suffering, noting the aesthetic precision but lack of honesty in addressing cultural turmoil.