With exceptional tenderness I remember the gallery “Le Lys”, situated in l’Île Saint-Louis, nearbay Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and its remarkable owner and curator Ms. Enisa Aličehić who has sadly passed away in July 2021. Under her guidance the gallery became not only a well known and respected place among artists, but also a temple of culture known for literary evenings and musical concerts.
For the opening of my exhibition, Enisa has invited me to make a musical evening, along with my art performance “Capturing Lights”, as a welcoming act for the visitors. Among them were three remarkable personalities that made me decide to dedicate that concert to them. One was the Montenegrin prince Nikola Petrović Njegoš, the direct descendant of the royal dinasty Petrović Njegoš, a reputable French architect, the founder and patron of prestigious Montenegrin art manifestation Biennale of Cetinje, an erudite and untiring humanitarian activist. The other person was the French actor Charles Millot, who was born in Croatia as Veljko Milojević nearby my native city of Bjelovar, and in his 35 year long film career played in well-known movies such as “Waterloo”, “French Connection II”, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, and numerous others. The third one was French–Yugoslav artist Enki Bilal who has already made an enviable career in France with his comics and films.
Artistic performance “Capturing Light” consisted of projection of playing light on a figure of bathing women placed in the middle of my installation utilizing angled mirrors. My intention was to evoke the spirit of impressionists who discovered how to capture the instantaneous and transient effects of sunlight by painting in the open space.
The musical recital included renowned traditional songs of the Balkans, being my way of paying tribute to wonderful visitors of the gallery and to three extraordinary men whom I was honored to have as friends.