Artist: Florian Mehmeti Löffler
Exhibition title: I – See- You – See – Me – See – You
Venue: Spazio ORR, Brescia, Italy
Date: March 27 – April 25, 2020
Photography: all images courtesy of the artist and Spazio ORR, Brescia
While you are there, I stay here, but when you return, I will turn with you. I turn, I turn, I turn. You are not here, you are not there, you are somewhere in between. Or maybe not just somewhere; maybe you are filling this space. The lens replaces the eye, and the evil eye is placed between the objects and my I. Rolling … rolling … eyes … as if to fill a void.
The superstitious curse of the “evil eye” is a common belief around the world, deriving from ancient times, it is today especially widespread in the Mediterranean, west Asian, and Latin American regions. Many cultures believe that receiving the evil eye from a person, animal, god, or demon that is inflicted by the supernatural power will cause misfortune or injury. Apotropaic charms and amulets, words and gestures, have historically and are currently used to ward off or reflect the powers of the evil eye.
The sculptures displayed in the exhibition draw on this belief – they refer to apotropaic charms and amulets used in the Mediterranean regions and ram horns, garlic; and scarecrows that are often placed outside of a house around Albanian and Macedonian regions, which are meant to redirect the gaze to the object and away from the dwelling.
“CALL THE WORLD FOR LESS”, 2020 is installed in the windows of the “Camera Project” space, the work derives from scans of Internet café and kiosk windows. Advertising and providing internet access, cheap international phone calls and money transfers, these stores offer a place of connection, a replacement for the non-presence. The appearance of these shops is most often determined by the promotion of brands that supply them with services, giving them a visual presence of non-location; as they sustain a similar look across the world. They can also be a container for the distinctive individual life stories of the owners and others, providing a structure in place for connection between people, in between states.
“Camera Project” is a Spazio ORR space project that aims to overcome the traditional logistics limitations of an exhibition. Through an exchange relationship, the projects of the artists involved are physically realized by the gallery team in the space, to be then photographed and disseminated online, eliminating the actual visit of the public, the space is rendered as a nonspace. In this detachment action, a gap is created between the artist’s exhibition project and the physical realization of the works; as well as between the exhibition and the spectator.
Florian Mehmeti Loeffler lives and works in Berlin, he is currently studying at UdK Berlin in the class of Prof. Josephine Pryde. His works have recently been shown at: Museum for Photography, 2019, Berlin; TorArtspace, 2019, Frankfurt a. M.; Babylon, 2018; Berlin; Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2018, Frankfurt a. M.; fffriedrich, 2017, Frankfurt a. M.
