“I liked the almost futuristic moment that the subject evoked as a celestial body. There was a kind of intrigue, which prompted me to create something with it,” said Gjeloshi, while explaining his preoccupation with the symbol from the fresco.

After graduating in Visual Art from the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, Gjeloshi was awarded the 2016 Ardhje Award for young visual artists in Albania by the Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art. His work has been presented in several solo exhibitions in Albania, Kosovo, Italy and France, among other countries.

K2.0 spoke with Gjeloshi about the video installation at Manifesta, his solo exhibitions and UFOs.

K2.0: Your video installation is inspired by two symbols in a fresco at the Dečani Monastery, created by an unknown artist in the 14th century. Where did this preoccupation with the fresco begin?

Lek M. Gjeloshi: I was curious about the fantasies that the figure evoked, which looked like a rocket, like a comet, and like a space capsule holding an astronaut inside. I liked the almost futuristic moment that the subject itself evoked as a celestial body, but also the fact that it came from a time distant from us. We are talking about the 14th century. In general, elements or subjects with science-fiction characteristics are projected into the future; in my case, this presence is projected into the past. There was a kind of intrigue that prompted me to create something with it.

I have only worked with one of the two symbols, the so-called moon. These two symbols became very popular in the 1960s. Firstly, from a Yugoslavian magazine called Lumière, where photographs of these two strange fresco subjects were published for the first time. Then, a few years later, through a cultural magazine from the Soviet Union, called Sputnik. From there, conspiracy theories began to flood in, according to which these figures are undeniable proof of the existence of aliens. The narrative about them began to take this direction: they are astronauts and aliens, who have come from another galaxy to visit us.

Actually, everything is happening at the scene of Christ’s death on the cross. This is important to note, because in depictions from that period, the scenes generally had the sun on one side and the moon on the other. For art historians, the two figures are the sun and the moon. For scientists and other researchers, they are aliens, or UFOs.

In this limbo of theories, perceptions, explanations, I started to build my work for Manifesta. Although in Deçan you can still feel that the town’s spirit is somewhat tense and isolated. There is still a KFOR checkpoint and photography is not allowed in the Monastery. Therefore, I had to invent a form of work without being directly present there.

In the video, only one of the two symbols found in the fresco is shown. Why did you choose the moon?

The moon seems to me a more specific presence, as the figure looks back on itself. It appears at a certain moment for us. Its movement is slow. We are often oriented by its light at night, although it receives its light from the sun. It has always seemed to me a concrete presence, though still distant and ethereal, that mediates our need to understand something beyond the planet we inhabit. In all directions, the moon remains for me a melancholic presence — different from the sun, more prosaic and brutal in its majesty.

Lek M. Gjeloshi: Contemporary art must recreate the possibility of enchantment

The Shkodran artist featured in Manifesta 14 talks about his work.

Lirika Demiri

Lek M. Gjeloshi: Contemporary art must recreate the possibility of enchantment

The Shkodran artist featured in Manifesta 14 talks about his work.

Lirika Demiri