I got an invitation to see the newest exhibtion of Milena Carbone named “No Exit“. It was officially opened on November 3rd at the main hall of Nitroglobus Roof Gallery.
I have covered Milena Carbone (mylena1992) already quite often in this blog and hence I was eager to see her newest exhibition. Dido Hass wrote about “No Exit” in the accompanying notecard that the pictures were not intended for an exhibition originally. Dido Haas selected them from Milena’s recent pictures and pointed out to her that they all show two characters, which made Milena think of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No exit” (“Huis clos” in french). Huis Clos is a play about three (not two) people who have nothing which connects them but the sole fact of being there, locked together in the same closed space. Through this play, Sartre explicitly tells us: “Hell is the others”. We are all the other of someone else, locked into a fictional room, i.e. a theater. In other words: we ourselves are hell.
And thus the story came to the pictures.
Impressions of “No Exit” by Milena Carbone at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (1)
It’s true, there are always two caracters in each picture. But often it seems to the the very same person just in a different form. It makes you think and begin to interpret something into the picture. But before you do look at the floor in which Milena’s pictures are mirrored. The mirrored pictures are not the same. Little details are different – a bullet becaome a fish, a closed mouth is opened, or a head is replaced with a clock. Intriguing – and motivating the spectator to search for more differences and thus to immerse deeper into the picture and the story.
Impressions of “No Exit” by Milena Carbone at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (2)
In the center of the exhibtion space you find a box. From the outside you see that there are some texts on the walls inside of the box, and there’s a dog. When you enter the box, you feel like caught in a closed room (the entrance is only transparent from the outside), you literally have “No Exit”.
The texts on the walls deal with “No Exit“, they confront the visitor/reader with incontestable truths, that have exactly one consequence and hence “No Exit” … Example: “The next planet beyond the solar system is nearly 41,000 billion kilometers from Earth. We are not sure if it is habitable. We would have to travel about 234,000 years to reach it with a spacecraft that would hurtle through space at 20,000 km per hour. There is nothing else. No exit.“
Impressions of “No Exit” by Milena Carbone at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (3)
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.
Milena was very active in Second Life, owning and curating three galleries. She has decided to focus on just her gallery and to make the most of it. Hence she gave up her galleries at Noir’Wen City and at Serena. If you want to see more of her and her art, also her performances, then visit her own gallery: the Carbone Gallery (and become a member of her group there). You can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here. And finally Milena also has an own website where she covers her work and activities.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. She has a speparete room at the gallery to showcase her own art, the main room is mostly dedicated to feature other artists.
Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “No Exit” by Milena Carbone, which will be open for the public throughout November (i.e. November 26th).
Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
The Carbone Gallery
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/172/158/3316
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568
Diomita Maurer’s Blog 