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‘I FEEL BLESSED TO HAVE THE LIBERTY TO PRODUCE WHAT I FEEL INSIDE’ REVIEW: ‘Magnificent Cultures’ – Luigi Ballarin’s solo debut in Qatar
Luigi Ballarin not only engages realism and abstraction in a conversation, but he makes peace with themes, subjects and colours that are mostly found in utterly contrasting spaces By
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uigi Ballarin is a contemporary visual artist who explores and works with Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Aesthetics, Ottoman Heritage and Sociology. He has had few international solo shows and his works have previously been exhibited in a number of art galleries in London, Rome, Venice, Istanbul, and now in Qatar. Having his pieces being a private collections, Luigi Ballarin produces high volume of work, which showcases experimental contemporary art produced in Islamic artistic fashion, fostering cultural understanding and social dialogue between ancient and
current, East and West, crescent and sun. Luigi Ballarin not only engages realism and abstraction in a conversation, but he makes peace with themes, subjects and colours that are mostly found in utterly contrasting spaces. Luigi was destined to become a peacemaker of contrasting concepts. Graduated in linguistics, he had managed to build a successful career in tourism, which however, wasn’t meant to last for life. Born and raised in scenic Venice, from an early age he felt in love with art, while he was exposed to a vast ethnic
Gabriella B. / Photos by Jayan Orma
diversity pouring in crowds of thousands into his home city, annually. As a result of a magical gift from a relative, Luigi took his first imaginary voyage far away from the Venetian Renaissance palaces. It was a pivotal moment in his life. For Anatolia, Asia Minor and Northern Africa, called his heart, at once. His stimulated imagination engaged in envisioning those lands, and led him to the mastering of a new, highly expressive, and universal communication craft – artistry. Of his remarkable evolutionary growth, ‘Magnificent Cultures’ artworks speak, each with its own special “timber”.
Luigi Ballarin, artist, (left) with Beste Gursu, curator.
14 Society
