poster made by David Silence based on an image of Milena
November 2021: NO EXIT, an exhibition by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus.
Milena is returning to Nitroglobus with an awesome set of images, although she initially intended to work on a totally different project. However, this was cancelled due to her RL work.
So the images shown at the walls of the gallery this month were not created for an exhibition. Instead they were taken from the stream of images which Milena regularly produces for herself.
I made the selection and pointed out to Milena that there were always two characters in each image, which made Milena think of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's play "No exit" (“Huis clos” in french). And voila the title for this exhibtion was born.
Huis Clos is a play about three people who have nothing which connects them but the sole fact of being there, locked together in the same closed space. Through this play, Sartre explicitly tells us: "Hell is the others". We are all the other of someone else, locked into a fictional room, i.e. a theater. In other words: we ourselves are hell. Milena's images are perhaps once more a testimony of this belief.
More detail about NO EXIT by Milena:
NO EXIT - AN UNEXHIBITION
No style
Contemporary culture is essentially composed of emptiness. Style is king, meaning is hollow. I'm not interested in that anymore.
Style, for me, is the result of the place, the tools and materials available where the work is produced. That's why, for some time now, I've been using the SL universe as the only element of style, almost without retouching, and without filters.
This could be a challenge if I had any ambition. But in a world where reaction is considered as interpretation, where opinion and judgment replace thought, any ambition is a waste of time.
NO EXIT
***
During the present exhibition NO EXIT by Milena Carbone at Nitroglobus, she made a BOOK of the complete exhibition, which is released now, info at Milena's blog.
In the book she put face to face the pictures and their reflections.
The book is available at Nitroglobus and at The Carbone Gallery Bookstore @ Noir Wen City
Reflections (image by Milena)
IN THE PRESS
Several reviews were published about Milena's exhibition. Here's an overview with some passages taken from these reviews:
First review published was by Frank Atisso in his blog ART KORNER
image by Frank Atisso
'The artwork itself has a purity about it that is rarely seen. Created in a somewhat minimalist style with soft tones and a balanced composition, Milena’s work is an interesting mixture of styles right from the Golden Age to the realistic art of the 20th century. In some of the images, she uses the gaze of the character to form a direct connection with us, the viewers – a technique that was often used by some prominent masters in the past.'
***
Second review is by Inara Pey in her blog LIVING IN A MODEMWORLD
image by Inara
'When Milena’s theme and Satre’s ideas are taken into consideration, these are images that taken on an entirely new depth. Take, for example, XXI Century. On the surface, a simple image of two women with different cultural heritages posing for a photograph – be they friends or relatives, it makes no difference. But, add the title of the piece into the equation, together with the fact one of the women is wearing an al-amira, and a more complex narrative emerges, that invokes thoughts of the manner in which during the first 21 years of the 21 century has continued to see the impact of “otherism” – the ostracising of those whose dress, system of belief and place of origin mark them as “different” and thus not to be trusted or allowed. It’s a negative attitude that has gripped many to the point of being without any exit; yet, were they to step outside of the strictures of peer / societal pressure, then the reality that we are all of one, single unique race would become that much harder to ignore.'
***
Last but not least a review by Diomita was published in her blog DIOMITA AND JENNY MAURER
image by Diomita
'It’s true, there are always two caracters in each picture. But often it seems to the the very same person just in a different form. It makes you think and begin to interpret something into the picture. But before you do look at the floor in which Milena’s pictures are mirrored. The mirrored pictures are not the same. Little details are different – a bullet becaome a fish, a closed mouth is opened, or a head is replaced with a clock. Intriguing – and motivating the spectator to search for more differences and thus to immerse deeper into the picture and the story.'
On 20 November Serendipity Dyrssen placed the video she made of Milena's exhibition on YOUTUBE.
Wow, please take a look, it's really super cool.
Big big hug Dido
