TINTIRINI

Gallery70 has the pleasure to present a project by  Jip & Jakup Ferri . In this exhibition they bring a series  carpets that the artist Jakup Ferri and his eleven-year-old son Jip have designed together, inspired by the technology and hand made  by handicrafts women from Northern Albania. This exhibition is a European premiere, to continue its journey to Austria and the Netherlands, soon after Albania.

 “A particular characteristics of our new and harsh time is dualism... distanced, but at the same time, condemned to stay together for long. According to ancient Greeks, dualism could even be a personality fluctuaction, but the legend says that dualism could be an expression of  love, as well.

In our case, the Kosovar artist Jakup Ferri has totally confided the deduction on dualism to his 11-year-old son, Jip. He believes their love is  entirely related to the second-version.

" Jip, my son, plays some computer games, and I have seen that he does that quite easily and funnily. I have always wanted my works to have a basis. I asked my son, whether he was ready to work together. Jip’s designs in this game are connected to modern technology inheritance and such an idea gave life to the first carpet creation which was crafted by some women from a village in the Northern Albania. For me, this is not the first carpet, I started experimenting with carpets almost ten years ago. At that time, I collaborated with my father for many years. Recently, I was detached from it, but  Jip’s designs stirred me up…".

Despite his very young age, Jip understands that Jules Verne’s “Two years’ vacations”  now is an absolute reality.  That’s why he plays a computer game, called “Animal Crossing”.

Two years pass with a blink and father and son will not have so much time for each-other any more. What about Animal Crossing? Will we change the moving image game into something physical, tangible and contextual, so that history smiles at us?

In this project, Jakup Ferri wants to connect the final technology with the Albanian tradition. Jip is the liaison of such an inspiration. His designs are not based on history. Tradition is totally in Jakup’s mind and memories. They are the ideal dualism… the magnet is on the side of love expression.

It is very interesting to see how Ferri returns to technology after a long time. The beginnings of the Kosovar artist have been art-videos since the start of 2000, having an immediate success in introducing his works at important exhibitions, like Istanbul Biennale, Quadrennial for Contemporary Art Copenhagen, Tanas Berlin, Artists Space New York, etc.

Jakup Ferri has been a brilliant novelty in the Kosovar contemporary art. A career starting with videos and performances, to continue with another atypical journey, concentrating on naive art and outsider artists’ history.

Anyway, besides all these mutations, if we observe Ferri’s work carefully, we always discover the same traces. The auto-irony and his wish to play on the opposite side of the ordinary stereotypes intermingle with the poetry process. Being a worshipper of the naive artists, for him is a liberation from bureaucratic framework and conventional production.

This is the first exhibition, in which Jakup Ferri introduces this series, and also the first time when his figurative art surrenders to Jip’s designs. And Sol Lewitt should pardon us, if Jip does not try to copy him at all, as he is freer, more natural and  beautiful”.

Fani Zguro,  Berlin, June 2021