ZORAN MINIĆ

Detached from daily context and removed from any comfort zone, Zoran Minić moves through the city chasing the memory of these waterways, pausing at the remaining traces. In his work, water has become sort of a territorial guide: a fluid and moving map to traverse, through which new orientations can be found. Thus, through a meticulous process of selection and subtraction, and by avoiding a purely realistic approach, he dissects the city into its parts.

The paintings perspectives result from overlapping memory and reality, creating an imaginary taxonomy of urban places. Far from photographic or emotional descriptions, Zoran’s paintings oscillate between representations from afar and architectural details, attempting to reconstruct an image of the city through his personal narrative. The newly interpreted and its restoration coexist in reduced paintings that detach themselves from the real world.

The Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri commented on this method by saying, ‘The erasure of the space surrounding the frame is as important to me as the presented part, and it is thanks to this reduction that the image takes on meaning.’ The separation from reality and the interpretation of memory, the imagination of what remains unseen, become functional to the creation of new iconographic images. Additionally opaque hues contribute to the definition of the public place, and soft light emphasises the geographical location of Milan. In his new cycle of work Zoran Minić invites us to discover hidden spaces of Milan.

Text by Marissa Morelli. Courtesy Galerie Albrecht