LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina & Air de Paris, Romainville Grand Paris - Dialogue
Mégane Brauer, Brilant Milazimi
Instead of a prefabricated curatorial concept we thought to create an open dialogue not only between Mégane Brauer and Brilant Milazimi but also between the two galleries.
Air de Paris, located in Romainville Grand Paris and LambdaLambdaLambda, located in Prishtina, will come together for the second time in Marseille during Art-o-rama.
Both galleries are open to chance and what can come out of the act of sharing a space and a period of time.
“Mordre et Tenir (Bite and Hold)” by Mégane Brauer is a series of works in 3 chapters, memories of 40 packets of spaghetti bought for the Beaux-Arts diploma and then eaten to survive.
Chapter 1: “Mordre et Tenir, L’Affrontement”, is a performance made in 2019 at the Beaux-Arts de Besançon with Mathieu Henejaert, for which they spread the rumor that a fight would take place during the opening. It was actually the memory of a winter evening when there was nothing left to eat but a packet of pasta.
Chapter 2: “Mordre et Tenir 2, Phenotype” is an installation made of spaghetti covered in glitter and soaked in mint essential oil – known for its anti-emetic properties. The flakes embellish the pasta bought at Lidl, what is left to eat [bite] when it is necessary [to hold on] until the end of the month.
Chapter 3: “Mordre et Tenir 3, So this is love” is the final chapter. In the one where spaghetti is drowned in too much salt, there remains the disgust of swallowing only that. Then suddenly appears the soundtrack of Cinderella “C’est ça l’amour”.
Brilant Milazimi’s works are neither allegorical nor anecdotal. They are visually powerful articulations of that which is oppressed; of trauma and what it means to live in Kosovo today. A realism interspersed with of dream-like fragments of memory resonates from these canvases, and the fake smile is but a symptom of an everyday life where social interaction is easily overshadowed by deeper-lying tensions.
Brilant Milazimi paints humans with grotesque faces and animals with human features. He juxtaposes the dark side of human existence with peaceful gatherings of animal creatures with elongated bodies. These paintings drawing on personal and collective memory offer an intuitive analysis of a contemporary condition of struggle and negotiation, of balancing feelings, of hope and freedom as well as coping with reality.
They mirror Kosovo’s psychological state of mind in scenarios both familiar and alien. Brilant Milazimi translates his perception of the world that surrounds him into images that are bitter, funny, tender, and weird all at the same time. Driven by the machinery of the unconscious, and inspired by the imaginaries of fictional universes, he finds expressions both sinister and poetical for an approach to the society he lives in: the exaggerated physiognomies and the highlighted symbolism of the teeth or the features of the animals are visual manifestations that trigger memories as much as they point to the present and its conflicts.
(excerpt from Vanessa Joan Müller)
Brilant Milazimi was born 1994 in Gjilan (Kosovo) and lives in Gjilan & Prishtina (Kosovo). He studied visual arts at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo.
His recent solo exhibitions include LambdaLambdaLambda at LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS, Brus- sels (2022); Ermes-Ermes, Rome (2021); Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina (2020- 2021) and LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina (2019).
He participated in group exhibitions at Rezistence, Gjilan (2022); LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina (2021); Ludwig Museum Budapest, Budapest (2020); National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina (2020); Termokis, Motrat and LambdaLambdaLambda (curated by Elise Lammer and Petrit Halilaj), Prishtina (2019); National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina (2019) and Gallery of Arts, Gjilan (2014). In 2020 he received the Young Visual Artist Award in Kosovo.
Upcoming exhibitions include Manifesta 14, Prishtina in 2022.
http://www.airdeparis.com/index.html
https://www.lambdalambdalambda.org
