«Photographing the obscenity of reality means being interested in the world and not interpreting it,» explains photographer Erjola Zhuka (1986, Albania), «where the notion of obscenity is anything that ends any gaze, any image, any representation». Her unsettling photographs, on display at Lampo Milano until January 14th, showcase a reality without filters, capable of breaking down defenses and unmasking social facades. The places and characters captured by Zhuka belong to her reality. They are familiar landscapes that present raw and spontaneous moments of her daily life to the viewer. Erjola Zhuka’s photography initiates a process of self-discovery, prompting us to reassess the influence of culture and society on our mentality and lifestyle.

The title of the solo exhibition at Lampo Milano better explains the concept behind Erjola Zhuka’s photographs. As if you know nothing, a phrase that implies a state of emptiness, of darkness, where thought isn’t conditioned by any convention or glossy image. It refers to an original, primordial state that nullifies every knowledge, every myth, with the intention of creating something new. The phrase doesn’t carry a negative connotation but aims to “foster that process of estrangement that widens…,” as stated in curator Elsa Barbieri’s text. A collection of photographs that challenges the viewer’s understanding of the world. Erjola Zhuka presents us with an elderly naked body, subject to the relentless passage of time, leading us to wonder: what would it be like to look at this body without the preconceptions we absorb from the outside? Her work, therefore, prompts an observation that goes beyond the surface. A succession of bodies and environments linked by two threads: time that alters everything and intimacy that dictates the narrative. Ultimately, it arrives at a reworking of identity through the sole and pure documentation of a specific moment, placed in a particular space, from the artist’s life.

Courtesy Erjola Zhuka