Diomita Maurer’s Blog

Today, Monday, October 31st, the exhibition “Africa” by Milena Carbone (mylena1992) will be opened. It is the November exhibition at the Nitroglobus Roof gallery, owned and curated by Dido Haas.
The opening party will start at 1 PM SLT (9 PM CET) with a dance performance created by Milena, where visitors can join in. DJ Fleming with provide the tunes and the particles will be contributed by Venus Adored.

“Africa” is the second part of the 5th season, a triology by Milena Carbone that deals with the causes and consequences of climate change. The first part, named “Blind” was exhibited at La Maison d’Aneli in June (read here).

Milena wrote about “Africa”:
“Africa” takes a look at the African continent, both amazed and crude.
Amazed, because Africa is a fertile paradise of biodiversity and beauty and the cradle of humanity, born in the rift, the vagina of the earth.
Crude, because Africa is a continent raped, slaughtered, poisoned, looted with impunity by empires, in cynical disdain of its inhabitants. Africa is what started it all by the grace of evolution, and will end by the rapacity of man.

“Africa” consists of 13 pictures:
The story of Grace, in seven paintings, an Ethiopian orphan who, at age 33, inherits the home of her father whom she never knew. As she explores this strange house, she more or less follows the biblical journey from creation to paradise and God’s doubt one Sunday night (“Oh my God, I think I’ve screwed up so damn bad”). In this part, Milena Carbone clears God of predestination and gives keys to understand that, if he is at the origin of the Creation, he has created the conditions of free will.
The Twilight of Humans is the story of Abel, an African man whom Grace meets in her house. In six tableaux, he travels through the destruction of the African continent, ends up being the last man in the world and makes his own burial ground in the rainforest.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (1)

As always the pictures can develop their strengths with the mirroring floor at the Nitroglobus Roof Gallery. The story of Abel is in one wing and the story of Grace in the other wing of the exhibition space. Between the pictures of Grace is a video wall playing the short film “Living Picture 4 Africa” which is also available on youtube here.

There are some 3D statues of African animals in the center of the gallery space. Once you get closer, the statues vanish and texts appear instead. As always in Milena’s exhibitions, texts and pictures build one unit. While in “Grace’s wing” the texts deal with God, the texts in “Abel’s wing” deal with the plagues that mankind has caused on earth: climate change, extinction of species and forced migration.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ Nitroglobus Roof Gallery (2)

Milena mentioned in the accompanying notecard that her writing style for the texts featured at the exhibition “Africa” is “more syncopated than usual, cutting the story with several levels of interpretation with inserts of scientific facts, memories or questionings of herself. I readily admit to having been amazed and inspired by the American author Jenny Offill.“

For the pictures Milena continued further expanding and broadening her style. She used the AI Midjourney again to create the backgrounds of her pictures. Milena had an exhibition of pictures created with Artifical Intelligence just recently: “Metamorphoses” (read here). The characters were added from Second Life.

Impressions of “Africa” by Milena Carbone @ 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 has an own gallery, the Carbone Studio and she has a bookstore @ Noir’Wen City.
Milena has an own website, you can also find her on flickr here and you can read her texts here.

Nitroglobus Roof Gallery is owned and curated by Dido Haas. Thank you, Dido for providing the space for the art and for enabling the exhibition “Africa” by Milena Carbone. The exhibition poster of “Africa” was created by David Silence based on an image of Milena.

And thank you Milena for another great exhibition. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Nitroglobus Roof Gallery and “Africa” by Milena Carbone
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunshine%20Homestead/38/22/1001
Dido Haas’ blog
https://exploringslwithdido.blogspot.com
Landmark to The Carbone Studio
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Woiler/176/163/3287
Landmark to The Carbone Bookstore @ Noir’Wen City
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Noir%20Wen/243/203/32
Milena’s website
https://sites.google.com/view/thecarbonegallery/news
Milena Carbone’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/milenacarbone/
Milena Carbone’s writing
https://medium.com/@539568