The title of the exhibition curated by Eleonora Savorelli and Andrea Pola, KOPEHA ≈ RADICI ≈ ROOTS, contains within itself the key to reading and understanding the show itself.

The Macedonian term, translated into Italian and English, is meant to draw an explicit connection with the lives of the four featured artists, who share the same background. For Mila Dobrevska, Anica Kitanoska, Aleksandra Miteva and Aleksandar Velichkovski, Macedonia is a land of origin, Italy is a land of adoption. 
In mathematical language, the symbol ≈ denotes an approximate equality relation.

The word “root” possesses a special subjective value in its objective meaning. This subjectivity is investigated in a comparison with contemporary mosaics.

Suggested by the power of ancient mosaics and interested in an in-depth study of them, the artists have been living in Ravenna for several years. At present, they are attending the master’s course in Mosaic at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna. Their approaches to the mosaic sphere differ in personal experience, materials, techniques and subjects.

Mila Dobrevska’s three works belong to the series Unusual Forms of the Ugly. They are deformed portraits from whose gaits some hints of human figures stand out. The alteration of the mosaic structure results in the individualism of the tiles, which take on orders of size and contrasting shapes, bold colors and bumpy surfaces. Large islands of stained glass collide with fragments forming dense but inconstant textures, subtly capturing human aspirations. In an exploration of the soul and the subconscious at its most fragile intimacy, each character, abstracted and geometrized, represents a particular emotion. The tiles converse with each other and invite the viewer to read an imagined story, which is created with the gaze.

Anica Kitanoska presents the works Archè and Sublunary. Throughout history, archè is defined as the primal force from which the world comes and to which it will return. As Lavoisier declares, “nothing is created, nothing is destroyed”. Cosmology, a branch of philosophy that investigates the material structure and laws of the universe, theorizes the circle to indicate the destiny of the human soul: in Archè this reflection is made explicit. In their unstable evanescence, the artist’s two works appear as abstract compositions as the viewer approaches them. The tiles follow a sinuous, almost painterly movement. As daughters of the wind carried by water or as flames that, taking shape, give life to an image whose margin of interpretation is indefinite.

Aleksandra Miteva presents the series Hermaphrodite and the work Bakar. Deviating from the practice of mosaic, understood in the strict sense, the metallic layer of copper is shown in its vulnerable mutability, enveloped by the air that oxidizes its surface. The series invokes the non-equality of genders and associates sewing with metalwork, two activities that in the common imagination are associated with women and men, respectively. In Bakar, from the Macedonian бакар (copper), the artist reasons about the concept of the “moving gap”. The copper mosaic remains detached from the plate that surrounds it, in a continuous search for balance between solids and voids. The mosaic becomes a shimmering, living metal fabric.

Royal Doors is the title of Aleksandar Velichkovski’s series. The decoration of Orthodox churches in North Macedonia was a pivotal experience in the evolution of the artist’s practice, who starts from drawing and painting to approach the mosaic outcome with greater awareness. According to Florensky, “the spiritual, invisible world does not lie in some remote place but surrounds us”. The doors thus invite a transcendental, otherworldly journey, with the desire to bring human beings closer to themselves through that invisible world of which the Russian philosopher writes. In the strong connection with the East, the artist traces luminous signs with gold tiles, witnesses to the eternal light.

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