You could say that Luciano Castelli lives life and art as an inseparable whole. Since 1973, the Swiss-born artist has concocted elaborate fantasies, costumed himself for them — dressing as women, animals, pirates — and documented them (and himself) in photographs and film footage that in turn became the basis for his beautiful, often erotic paintings. As you flip through a recently published book that traces Castelli’s career from his youth in Lucerne to his current flamboyant life at the heart of Berlin’s counterculture, compelling images jump from the pages: childish watercolors from 1969, when Castelli, then 17, decided he wanted to be an artist; photographs and jewel-toned paintings of the artist in drag as “Lucille,” a female alter ego not unlike Marcel Duchamp’s “Rose Selavy”; collaborative canvases by Castelli and artist/colleagues Salome and Rainer Fetting, depicting brothels, bodies on meat hooks, and men on trapezes.
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The artist himself is so soft-spoken and polite that it’s hard to reconcile his exotic life with his Alfalfa-like countenance. “I’ve always liked to play different roles, but it’s really just a game for me,” maintains Castelli, who traveled to Hollywood and Rome before settling in Berlin in 1978. “I believe we are all made up of male and female aspects, and the combination interests me . . .”
On one wall, Sabijn reclines provocatively, exhibiting several tattoos on her right buttock. Nearby, Irene is peeling off her sweater to reveal a black bra. “She was my girlfriend for two years — a very famous prostitute from Zurich who was the best in the whole city,” Castelli says. “She was a very expensive entertainer, not just a whore, since she also acted in movies and posed for photographs . . .” Current girlfriend Birgit Hoffmeister also appears in several of the paintings, including the double portrait Birgit + Manuela, in which she’s painted deep green to Manuela’s tawny brown.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Paul L. Merideth.
