Artan Shabani
dal 2/2/2010 al 22/2/2010
Segnalato da
2/2/2010
Artan Shabani
The Promenade Gallery, Vlore
Lady Liberty.
Lady Liberty_Dolls: ancient toys whose history has been lost in the darkness of antiquity. We
find them in the graves of the Egyptians and of Etruscans and what is really
interesting to observe for our artistic aims, it’s not that much the material
they were molded of, composed by wood, fabric or terracotta, but to what
extend the clothing that covered them; a clothing which by reflecting the
fashion of the century was a bearer of strong social references.
Instead, Artan Shabani proposes to us in this image, a totally naked doll;
whose nakedness, though being much more grave and representative than any
other garment, - takes us into a provocative universe that reminds us a little of
the desecrated. Art of Maurizio Cattelan, whose child-mockups hung on the
trees of Piazza XXIV Maggio in Milan, made a big fuss giving rise to
controversial opinions and ferocious arguments.
Georg Brandes, critic and exponent of the tip of the literary naturalism in
Scandinavia of the 1800's, was usually asserting that Art - “can be considered
alive only when it places the problems under accusation! ” -And in this sense
the mockups of Cattelan, like the doll of Shabani, assumes the features of a
theatre of the absurdity, overturning the rules of culture and society in a
continuous gesture of insubordination.
The doll of Shabani - naked and deprived of the limbs - is a raw image of
strong emotional impact that tells the tragedy of children sold and forced to
prostitute themselves. The doll - a game for antonomasia for the childhood
period which is seen as a metaphor of the negation in this very same
childhood, as a denunciation against violence and indifference; a sad
representation that sheds light on the human comedy through the “filter” of
Art, forcing the spectator to reflect, raising questions on the issues of guilt and
responsibility. Already more than a century ago, the historical modernism on
sail from Duchamp would explode the rage on the planet with the Art slogan as
an enlightening, also through and thanks to the horror.
And here the horrible object reaches at last “under the roof” obligating us to
become aware of those problems that - blinded from the easy life and the
comfort - perceived ourselves as distant and strange. To the doll of Shabani -
drawn here and there from desolating residual of “white liquid” - has remained
nothing more if not the sad and deep expression of its eyes, that in itself
encloses a last painful outcry for help; but even this is not perceived by the
rushing passer-by who scarcely notices in that look something hipnotic,
charming, some kind of spiral that dazes, thus persuading him to throw some
coins in a somewhat used white handkerchief. So the darkness never ends!
And the goal of the artist is therefore to launch an outcry of alarm to the
society, thus making the individuals aware of that unhealthy numbness that
makes them indifferent in front of every atrocities, accustomed as they are to
watch the slide of the tv screened images of guerrilla, and tortured bodies.
That same society that becomes angry for the provocative image of an Artist,
remains then incomprehensibly unarmed in front of the barbarism of the
children's prostitution. And then it is only by carrying the horror out in the
street that the people can become true protagonist of History, and of all those
who succumbed and turned down are unable to tell; Like those “Wretched
people” so very well described by Victor Hugo.
The Promenade Gallery
Blvd. Cameria skele uji i ftohte L. Pavaresia - Vlore