NABA is proud to present the exhibition “Foreign Affairs/Affari Esteri” that brings together artistic works by first ten graduate students of the BA in Painting and Visual Arts in English language. The project, displayed at the spaces of Otto Zoo gallery, curated by Course Leader Andris Brinkmanis is part of Walk-In Studio Festival 2021, opening on October 7th at 6 pm and available on October 8th and 9th from 10 am to 7 pm.
The ironic title Foreign Affairs, a term that is normally, used to describe matters of public interest and importance happening abroad or somewhere else, here is used in a wider sense and meaning. The project, apart from presenting works by a group of international students and artists, aims to dwell on some of the failed promises and aspirations of modernity and globalization. It also wants to reflect on the new and emerging conditions of cultural and social exchange, the new climate and gender awareness and more generally on the multifaceted and complex conditions of the present, as seen by the directly affected younger generation of artists. Can we still juxtapose foreign affairs versus internal affairs? Or shall we, instead abandon the extractionist, consumerist logic, the rigid division of roles, gender, nationalities and develop a new type of awareness, that takes into account the interconnectedness between various processes, allowing to reinvent a different relationship between various forms of life, animate and inanimate.
The students participating in the exhibition each address these issues differently, from sculptures of Dilan Perişan made during the various lockdown, out of everyday objects, garbage and other means one could physically find, to blown up photocollages of Hande Ozkalemkas of the bedrooms, that during her travels, while studying in Italy and especially during the recent pandemic, became the center of her, but also everybody’s daily lives. From seemingly ordinary daily life fragments that appear in the paintings of Alessandra Risi and Simla Iceli as indices through which they construct complex narratives to deconstruction of graphic signs and majoritarian idea of language, as a means of creating a new feminist critique in the works of Giulia Mastrangelo. From skins of paint, abstract works and Indian combined wedding tradition analysis, documentation and critique in the works of Shailey Shah to subtle video by Elsa Sohlberg documenting physical remnants of pain. From a reflection on domestic violence and sexual harassment in the works of Chiara Baertl, to very personal story told via objects of Irene Inchaurrandieta and Ana Segota all create a complex and coral meditation on those everyday affairs that we would like to perceive as foreign, but in which we immediately recognize something from ourselves.
Foreign Affairs/Affari Esteri
Curated by Andris Brinkmanis, BA in Painting and Visual Arts Course Leader
Graphics Lilia Di Bella, Archive Appendix
Galleria Otto Zoo, Via Vigevano, 8, Milan
Opening October 7th at 6 pm, exhibition October 8th and 9th from 11 am to 7 pm
The event is part of Walk-In Studio festival
Access allowed only to those presenting a Green Pass