Just below the distinctly exotic and humoristic surface of Léo Luccioni’s Hakuna Mahaha, a shrouded web of unanswered existential questions awaits the unsuspecting visitor. Embellished in the candy coloured packaging of junk food and commercial display, subliminal reflections on topics like the profit-based industrialized global economy and its destructive consequences are stealthily concealed. Marketing strategies and greenwashing tactics transpire through the exaggerated brilliance of their cleverly designed disguises in this singular practice, cherishing the dark and shiny nuggets of contemporary consumption culture like blood diamonds.

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Central in the exhibition is the lionless adaptation of Walt Disney’s Lion King poster in the impressive aerosol and oil painting The Sun does not exist. The idyllic African sunset turns into a threatening, desolate landscape through the eyes of a generation bombarded by the mass media with climate changing greenhouse emissions and the extinction of animal species. Closely connected is the neon light Swahili quote Hakuna Matata (meaning ‘no worries’) the above-mentioned entertainment company registered as their trademark. Rendering the phrase in the German Fraktur type that was used for propaganda, connects the corporation's current methods to the alledged political sympathies of it's founder. The polished bronze Lion chocolate bars in their original plastic foil packaging as The End of Kings suggest the coprolitic trophies of the absent feline, in a familiar french word play on bronze casting. The installation is accompanied by the hypnotic sound of tongue drums made from empty gas cylinders in the Meditation Drum series. While these musical instruments are handmade based on a technique found in online DIY tutorials by upcycling industrial waste, here they are painted in car lacquer regaining the appearance of mass produced consumer goods. Through this process the enduring cycle of appropriation and reappropriation by mainstream culture and counter culture is subtly exposed. The 432 Hz frequency these instruments produce is known to reduce the stress hormone cortisol, inducing a meditative state of mind and relaxation in an absolution of human nature.

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In the back room a seductive human sized copy of a Bounty chocolate bar aptly titled Mutiny on the Bounty, a Taste of Nostalgia reminds the diversion of advertising strategies, and the artificial paradise they sold so well that the dream they promised virtually evaporated. After consumer protests this snack promoting itself as ‘A Taste of Paradise’ was exiled from Celebrations boxes in the United States, revisiting the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty and it's romanticized Hollywood versions the name refers to. What initially appeared to be an exaltation of the wonders of our era seemingly embodies the weight as well as the unbearable lightness of a time beyond the anthropocene.

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Between desire and rejection, the profane and the sacred, Leo Luccioni develops a body of work in which the material world is deregulated. A polysemic and allegorical art that encourages critical thinking, invites reinvention and surprise. With a counter-poetry that is both popular and existential, he questions the absurdity of mass production and the illusion of material ecstasy. These installations oscillate between seemingly benign entertainment and the latent seriousness that can resurface at any moment.

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His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions, in 2020 at Everyday Gallery in Antwerp, in 2021 at NADA New York and Stems Gallery in Brussels, in 2022 at the Palazzo Monti in Brescia and at the Chapelle des Dames Blanches in La Rochelle and, in 2023, at Romero Paprocki in Paris. He has taken part in exhibitions at Garage Rotterdam, the Boghossian Foundation, Studio-Orta, New Space, the Cassina Project and at various fairs in Paris, Milan, Miami, Hong Kong and Dubai. He has been awarded the Belgian Young Artist prize in sculpture and installation in 2022. In 2024 he presents a solo exhibition at Ceramic Brussels with Romero Paprocki and a solo exhibition at Stems, Brussels.