I was invited to the opening of “Scandal”, Milena Carbone’s newest exhibition at The Carbone Gallery. I wasn’t able to attend the opening event on Wednesday, February 17th. Instead I visited a few days before the opening and I had the opportunity to talk with Milena.
Milena, being a story teller, combines several aspects in “Scandal”. There’s first the opening event. Milena has designed a choreography of a ballet, based on Philip Glass music and SL ballet and dance poses. She told me that she will dance herself. I can’t report about this event as I missed it.
Scandal is a series of 8 pictures about the character of Iselin, an Icelandic girl who becomes a Christ in the XXI century. It is Milena’s third story of a contemporary christ, after the Brazilian child in the exhibition Locked, and the mixed-race gay Mahdi in the exhibition Plead Guilty. This work will probably close her series of Christs.
The location of this exhibition is outstanding. Milena reproduced the Church of Light, designed by the famous architect Tadao Ando. The church will stay as a permanent part of the gallery, for exhibition, concerts, and prays. I never heard of this church before and hence visiting “Scandal” inspired me to do some reasearch on the internet about this church and it’s architect. I recommend to start with the wikipedia entries about the church of light and about Tadao Ando. Milena did a great job transferring the church into Second Life – and it is a great place for future exhibitions and other events. Chapeau!
The exhibition Scandal is related to the theory of social violence of René Girard, a french anthropologist. He wrote a book called “Woe to the man through whom scandal comes” where he showed how Jesus Christ unveiled the role of sacrifice, and how the innocents are sacrified. I also read about René Girard in wikipedia. Girard showed how conflicts in social groups are solved by the scapegoat mechanism.
Impressions of “Scandal by Milena Carbone” (1)
The 8 pictures are exhibited inside of the church of light. They relate to the story of the Icelandic girl Iselin, but they stand for themselves as well without the story. They deal with religion, with innocence and with a culminating act of violence. Milena has the plot of the story in her mind and will publish it most probably as another book, a small book that you can read within Second Life, in the course of March 21. It was not written yet at the time of my visit. I intend to visit Scandal again when the story is published.
Impressions of “Scandal by Milena Carbone” (2)
Milena Carbone (mylena1992) is a French artist and is in Second Life since mid 2019. She discovered its artistic potential and since then has devoted all her free time to creation, associating, as in real life, images and texts: “Milena Carbone is a fiction in which, as in any artistic work, biographical and imaginary elements are mixed.” Her creative process is iterative: some of her images inspire her stories and these stories modify the development of the image, which itself transforms the story.
On February 22nd Milena told me that she rearranged the exhibiton and included pictures of the opening concert and ballet to make it part of the exhibition and to save the impressions. The concert consisted of a series of 15 pieces composed by Philip Glass, gathered in 7 parts, each introduced by a libretto written by Milena Carbone.
The dancers of the ballet were Milena Carbone and Belice Benoir, Nieu (NieuwenHove) supported them with the technic. The now showcased pictures of the even were taken by Charlotte Belladona (charlottebelladonna) and .Crazy Dust. (zigboom) and can also be seen at their flickr pages here and here.
Impressions of the opening event of “Scandal” by Milena Carbone
Thank you for another great exhibition, Milena. Scandal inspired me to quite some research and hence was educational for me – and it impressed me.
Landmark to The Carbone Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/172/158/3316
Landmark to The Carbone Gallery @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena Carbone’s Flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing (blog)
https://medium.com/@539568
Charlotte Belladonna (charlottebelladonna)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/186968761@N05/
.Crazy Dust. (zigboom)’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zigboom/
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 