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THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM  

ROOM 2, L21 Gallery Barcelona

29 June—01 September 2023

“THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM”
L21 BARCELONA
29/06 – 01/09/2023

Mira Makai is an artist who plays, who creates her pieces intuitively, without defining
the final result from the outset. This fact endows her figures with an almost magical
quality, turning them into small inanimate beings that, paradoxically, seem about to
perform some action when one observes them. These ceramic characters make up
Makai's artistic universe, in which she has found her own language inspired by
mythology and rituality, creating pieces with extravagant shapes and bright colors.
Makai exhibits again at L21 with the solo show "The Calm before the Storm",
presenting a set of artworks that can be interpreted separately or as part of a thematic
installation that the artist refers to as "Sacrifice for the Wisest". The sculptures trigger
sensations that can be contradictory. They are pleasant but also disturbing, as well as
changing, since they evoke different emotions depending on the angle from where we
observe them.


The scene is part of a fictional story, without beginning or end, in which Makai invites
us to ask questions that may help us to find an end to this story. The artist's imagination
and own experiences meet those of the viewer to shape a story that can be told in
different voices. In this open story, the leader (the piece titled "Witch Doctor"), stands in
the middle of the pedestal, while the other characters surround and worship him or her.
From the titles of the exhibition and this installation, we can deduce that something is
about to happen. Something dramatic maybe? Something transformative, or even
transcendental? All scenarios are open.


Makai has once again taken inspiration from rituals, magic, and mythology to shape
this project. These are themes that have always been present in art, and through the
artist's imagination they become more real and contemporary. Don't we all follow a
series of rituals in our day to day? We follow routines, we adore figures, and we
venerate objects. Michael Pollan explains: “People have traditionally turned to ritual to
help them frame and acknowledge and ultimately even find joy in just such a paradox
of being human - in the fact that so much of what we desire for our happiness and need
for our survival comes at a heavy cost 1 ”. In this incessant search for meaning, filled with
contradictions, art has a special place. Welcome to the perfect storm!
 

1 Pollan, Michael. “A Place of MY Own. The Architecture of Daydream”. (2008). Penguin Group.

 

text by Cristina Molina

Courtesy of L21 Gallery

Photocredit: Juan David Cortés

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