Zeta Gallery presents from 15th to 28 th of November the personal exhibition “Appearances” by painter Idlir Koka (1979), curated by Alban Hajdinaj. The exhibition features works from the author’s recent cycles (2016-2018), representing the aspect of absorption and entertainment from the show, focusing mostly on the spectators (followers) of these performances.
Through the images, the author points out the strength that distinguishes the present-day show towards its public, the viewers. Scenes, auditorium, as well as human and artistic (and further) interactions of both sides; this is what the author chooses to display on the fabric. The interaction between the main character and the masses in front of him is one of the exciting moments for the author; where the spectator serves as a nucleus of an echo spreading waves around, dispersing its clingy effect.
For the author the clearly described features are not very important. The human of Koka is often a shadow, and in other cases there is ugliness as a result of glittery otiosity, moral ruin, where the heroes (performers) and the victims (spectators) carry the colours of the underworld. You can feel the emotions of an underworld party where the spectators submit to the power of the show; the emotions of a dark entertainment, an entertainment where the thirst to be the centre of attention is high despite the possibilities.
In certain tableaus we are conveyed the impression of reflection (without worship) of what can be called a high society. But why did the author’s attention flee from the scene to move to the auditorium? What’s going on there? Indeed, the auditorium (spectators) is nothing else but the medium where the cause and effect of the shows are joined.
What is noticed in the exhibition is the controversy between how the substance is treated and the substance itself. The author chooses to describe the society in a moment of enjoyment; but everything in the picture looks like a black show; the visitor of the exhibition is seeing the overall drama of the society in which he is involved. What we don t exactly know is how conscious the spectator is in the tabloids due to the drama he is experiencing. However the “Munch” -inian creams give us the answer. According to the exhibition named “Appearances”, have such influential strengths that can aggravate your nerves, erode your strength. Despite coloration, the paintings resemble a negative.
* Idlir Koka was born in Tirana, Albania in 1979 where he also lives and works. His work investigates the relationship between the spectacle and the audience, framing it as a contemporary regime and a new ideology of conformity. He treats the cult of the show as the first mediator of how we perceive the contemporary life phenomena, where spectacle and the audience often merge into one giving us fictional imagery. The audience is the show and vice versa. Spectators become the show itself, often hypnotic-oriented and subordinated towards a new self-relationship/reproduction.
