“32 sixty-nine” is Irgin Sena´s personal exhibition at Bazament Art Space, during June 14th – July 6th, 2018 in Tirana. In its contents, the exhibition combines video and installation, “conquering” the interior space of the Bazament.
The expressive language of ideas sounds extremely self-contained, almost impenetrable. Nevertheless, the social concern, in addition to the individual one, pervades the work by drawing attention to the subjects of the wandering journeys, the contemned worships, the crumbling passions, perplexed from failure and ultimately: the hesitation to abandon life or not.
The first corner of the Bazament accommodates the video which invites you to the messy escape of who know who; in the reflection of the ruins left behind in the crimson obscurity; in the sight of suitcases abandoned in trails; in the dance of the butterflies-visitors of these suitcases.
The four important elements of existence: air, water, earth and fire pervade along the video. In it, man is present with his absence, simply indirectly, thanks to the path of destruction, abandonment and complete ruin following abandonment.
The “Constellation” (consisting of 32 stars) running through a boulevard – not dedicated to the movie stars, but plain unidentified names – is the content of the video “Untitled”. A star who is not yet extinguished leaves its place to another, as an unbreakable chain, the plan behind the plan, where a name is hijacked, another one is left behind. In Irgin’s work, the constellation is not in heaven, it is not intangible, further more it is not impossible. Cigarette butts swing around it. Perhaps, the human being has become grotesque, aiming similarity to the stars.
Aluminum flags (with certain views stamped) surround the main Bazament space, in the center of which a different set of images are suspended. The topics reflected in them interact with one another: the periphery and the center treat more or less the same thing, the only change is that the bloodied crumbly passion is strong; the wanderer has a human shape and somewhere else a rope of a hangman hangs in the suspended object.
In almost un-noticed angles, somewhere in the entrance, is reflected (through the appropriate installation) the desire to remove the obstacles that others put on us and those we put to ourselves; somewhere at the top, ironically reflected, riddled with the idea of a final departure, a journey with no return beyond earthly life.
Everything burrs in “29 forty” (“29 forty” in the original). Technology, electronics and travel through them in the rainbow backgrounds. Only the path is clear, his effort to be precise, but not the goal (destination).
The exhibition, a kind of cryptogram, weaved in images and naming numbers, invites the implementation of cold logic.
* Irgin Sena was born in Albania and lives and works in New York. He has an MFA from Hunter College. In 2008, 2012 and 2013 he was a resident at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) (New York).
In 2012 he was awarded the “MARIAN NETTER” award, and in 2007 with the “ARDHJE” award. Among the artistic spaces in which Irgin Sena has exhibited we can mention: Prospectif Cinéma; Center Georges Pompidou, (Paris, France); Multiplicity, (New York); EFA Project Space, (New York); International Biennial for New Art (Moscow); Tirana Biennial, 3rd edition; Invisible Exports Gallery (New York); Fresh Window Gallery (Bruklin, New York); Mixed Greens Gallery (New York); National Gallery of Arts (Tirana); House am Lutzowplatz (Berlin) and Badischer-Kunstverein (Karlsruhe, Germany).
