Kontrapunkt

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Bedi, Kosturanov and Irena Paskali in Gostivar

On 07.05.2004. in Gostivar exhibition by Vane Kosturanov "A house scarcely bigger than a planet", "At the Botom" by Irena Paskali and Bedi Ibrahim, "My diary" was opened.

Ibrahim Bedi is one of the most important macedonian artist in the recent ten years. He is born 1959 in Skopje. He has participated in many group exhibitions and has many solo exhibitions also.
The accent in the project "My diary" is put on the intimacy and the warmth of the past and the remembrances from which the author takes the energy for his works. The material is natural, archetypal, mithyc, longlasting (wood, stone...) and it reffers to the mythic and the ritual as opposed to the urban while the more simple unusual forms of the things/parts from the used ) or natural parts the authors draws the objects from the obscurity of the reality and gave new mythic and artistic function.
Vane Kosturanov is born 1979 in Strumica. He lives and works in Strumica. He participated in several group exhibitions in the country. His current preoccupation is the graphic design where he shows extraordinary big results. Vane Kosturanov does not have a formal visual education, which once again confirms the old rule that the talent is still the most important thing in creating part.
The main obsession of Vane Kosturanov on his second solo exhibition, is the house, which is given in the title. Transforming the famous sentence by Saint Egzippery "His own planet is scarcely bigger than a house" he reveals the meaning, which this motive has in their art. Generally speaking paintings worked in oil on canvas, tree and paper, and acryl stresses the feeling of intimacy and melancholy. The drawing is "childish" only on first sight, while, on the other side, the color is sometimes contrasting, but most often lyrical and balanced. This exhibition contains of 30 paintings.
Irena Paskali is born 1969 in Ohrid, and is one of the most provocative female artist in the recent times especially concerning issues with socio-political background. Until now she has realized 13 solo exhibitions (Skopje/Macedonia, Vassa/Finland, Veimar/Germany, Belgrade/Serbia & Montenegro, Mostar/Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sofia/Bulgarija). Participated at many group exhibitions, festivals and artist in residence programs in Macedonia and abroad. Irena Paskali's project "At this bottom" is short documentary story about the way on which the representatives of the two biggest religions - Christians and Muslims - live together. That is a story about absurdity of mutual (in)tolerance and (un)acceptability of two religions that are geographically determinate and sentenced on together existence on a turbulent small region, place for living that the author describes as "at this bottom". The eternal conflict of culturological differences is shown on the video, but, most of all, the accent is put on the absurdity of similarities, which, for biggest optimists can signify moments of approaching. Similarities are shown trough documentary recordings of events in (and around) 2001: similarities in rituals, in celebration of big religious celebrations, in the desire for believing, but also similarities in mutual destruction and suffering.
In the case of "At this bottom", the story marks the actual social changes and its influence on the subjects of this society. Accidental participants are chosen to demonstrate the dark atmosphere, and Paskali puts her self in the role of the narrator present in all segments of the video. These "performing elements", in which the author is a central figure, are presented in almost all of Paskali's videos (which is rarity in Macedonian art); but the author is not a critic or a judge; trough her presence she (un)intentionally points on and elaborates psychological and sociological problems of "everyday" people.