"Free Fight 1"

C-print on Diasec

The aestheticized recordings of mixed martial arts fights, which are limited only by a few rules and take place in abandoned Hamburg brothels and other underground locations on the threshold of illegality, play with art historical references to Rembrandt, Caravaggio and El Greco. Similar to the great painters of the Baroque era, Giovanni Castell uses dramatic lighting in his "Free Fights" to emphasize the compositional structures of his works. A decisive moment in action is torn out of the constantly progressing flow of time, the before and after of the scene is left to the imagination of the viewer.
(Dr. Tilman Treusch, Gallery Nikolaus Ruzicska)