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February 2– 25, 2006
curated by Julia Draganovic
Traveling light. Nothing to lose challenges many
long held conceptions in art history and practice. Myths of
artistic creativity have been tied (in the Romantic tradition) to
poverty, the renunciation of the bourgeois world of material wealth
for the freezing garret - the privations and suffering of a Van
Gough, Puccini's bohemian and its contemporary re-incarnation in
the characters of Rent who glory in being as "Us rather than
Them". Contemporary art practice has, on the other hand,
bridged the gap between high art materials and the stuff of life,
aestheticizing the mundane, while at the same time, reaping the
benefits of the glamour and high prices of the art market.
The artist works selected for Traveling Light reject
both positions. The link between creativity and renunciation and
suffering is turned on its head as is the need for the highly labor
intensive or complex and costly material that characterizes much
contemporary production.
The works in the exhibition suggest that creativity, grounded in
"modest" circumstance, in risk, deprivation and lack of
basic material, can produce fanciful flights of imagination and
innovation. The harsh facts of a tyrannical political system
do not condemn production to an expression of suffering or nihilistic
pessimism. What the artists in this exhibition share is the desire
to make something out of nothing (or very little) to take the viewer
on a journey with little baggage to show them how amazingly far
one can go without even a small care package. The works selected
privilege those talents who translate their own difficult situations
into artworks, critical but not lamenting of the circumstances in
which they live.
Enrica Borghi (Italy) for example, creates a complex mosaic of jewel
like beauty out of the foil of candy wrappers. Bruna Esposito (Italy)
challenges the inherent nationalism of flags with a video showing
only the shadow of a flag blowing in the wind. Gentian Shkurti (Albania)
recalls the mass exodus of refugees from Albania to Italy with an
interactive video game where the participants drive the "boat"
to safety and shoot down or are shot at by their would be captors.
Alban Hajdinaj, also from Albania, depicts in simple photographs
an orgy of cherry eating which could also be interpreted, in a visual
pun, as an orgy of blood. Other artists featured in the exhibition
include Lumturi Biloshmi (Albania), Robert Dragot (Albania), Christine
de la Garenne (Germany), Aurelia Mihai (Romania), Tobias Putrih
(Slovania), Stefano Romano (Italy) and Anila Rubiku (Albania).
Traveling light. Nothing to lose is presented in
cooperation with the National Gallery of Tirana, Albania
and the Provincia of Modena, Italy. It is
the first in a series of exhibitions between the Chelsea Art Museum,
Home of the Miotte Foundation, and international art institutions.
This series is intended to promote an exchange of artistic and cultural
perspectives across social boundaries.
The exhibition was curated by Julia Draganovic, Director of the
Chelsea Art Museum, Home of the Miotte Foundation and Curator for
the Province of Modena.
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