Álvaro Urbano

∗1983, Spain

Álvaro Urbano (1983, Madrid, Spain) lives and works in Berlin. His practice encompasses a wide range of media — from installation to sculpture, from video to performance — in order to create immersive environments and architectures that shape the visitors’ perceptions. The lyrical and narrative settings that Urbano creates in exhibition contexts—also drawing on his sensibility for theatre and filmmaking—tell stories of parallel realities, hallucinations, and complex simulations.



“I am interested in showing the life of an object, not in replicating something that already exists, but rather in imitating its life and bringing it into an environment that has the ability to tell a story. In my installations, environments and sculptures there often exists a moment of deception, in that they work almost as clues of a constructed reality. For instance, cigarette butts on the floor can be traces of a person or dry leaves in a corner of a room an indication of a gust of wind. When these situations happen in a museum, an institution in which certain protocols must be followed, they alter reality, a subversive and even political action.”



At Sala Trenker, Urbano presents Zwischenzeit, an installation composed of an historic street lamp from the former DDR and a group of leaves lying on the floor beneath it. Each of the leaves has been sculpted in metal and handpainted, showing different seasons through the change in colors in the foliage.

The street lamp flickers and dimms in random sequences, simulating an inner dialogue or perhaps an intimate conversation. This responds to Urbano’s questioning of the secret lives of objects and artworks, and how they would behave as autonomous characters.

The luminic rhythm gently induces the viewer in a state of contemplation, illuminating surrounding artworks and casting a nocturnal ambience across the exhibition space. With this work Urbano deepens his interest in bending the limits between reality and fiction, proliferating speculative narratives derived from everyday artifacts.

Ha partecipato a:

• Biennale Gherdëina 10 | (Future) Paradise Gardens