Iva Lulashi: Love as a Glass of Water

Commissioner: Blendi Gonxhja, Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation
Curator: Antonio Grulli

The “theory of the glass of water” dates back to the pre-revolutionary Russian period and is linked to the radical thinker and feminist Alexandra Kollontai (St. Petersburg, 1872–Moscow, 1952). It is a theory based on the idea of a sexual revolution where impulses are seen as a simple human necessity that must be satisfied with the lightness and carefreeness that a glass of water is usually drunk with. It had a significant influence on artistic and literary circles of those years, but was immediately opposed by revolutionary political establishments.

At first glance, the metaphor of the glass of water may seem to only raise the aspect of simplicity in the gesture of drinking. But it’s crucial not to forget that water is the basic condition for life, just like love. And it is bizarre that themes such as love and sexual desire cover a tiny fraction of the art produced and exhibited today, as if they were taboos or minor topics. Love, sex, and desire are still today the last great eternally revolutionary force, inherently resistant to the firm control of power, whether it is political, economic, or ideological. It’s a supra-political and structural force, similar to that of water, elusive, at times peaceful, but still able to overcome any obstacle.

Why is such an essential feeling, capable of giving meaning or ruining our existence even more than political issues, addressed so little by artists?

Iva Lulashi (Tirana, 1988) seamlessly works into this significant void in art: love, desire—especially of feminine nature—impulse, and sexuality are at the core of her work: universal subjects able to transcend differences and overcome boundaries.

The images in her paintings are mostly taken from film and video stills, usually little known, which serve as the painting’s initial detonator and from which the artist moves away, cutting the cord from the initial inspiration. They are mainly populated by female bodies and suggest scenarios potentially involving the erotic act—as if they were a “right before” or “right after”—without explicitly showing it. The paintings stand out for their “photographic” attitude, but at a closer look they manifest themselves as strongly painterly, made of a livid liquidity, of synthetic brushstrokes devoid of any affectation, leaving many parts of the painting deliberately unresolved and almost abstract. They are an ode to feminine desire, encompassing strength, fear, hope, a desire for freedom, dark sides, and vitality: inseparable themes from a not-yet-past past, laden with global political issues, which one must deal with every day and every night.

Iva Lulashi embodies the theme of the 2024 Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere. Born in Albania, she soon moved to Italy with her family and currently lives in Milan. Her style blends the Albanian pictorial tradition (featuring internationally recognized figures) with the Italian and Venetian one. Indeed, she trained as a painter in Venice, a cosmopolitan city par excellence. The Albanian Pavilion of this edition will therefore be closely tied to Venice, the city of water and glass (many would also say of love…), always symbiotic with the stranger and the foreigner, where everyone can feel like a citizen. In this city Iva attended the Academy of Fine Arts, which, in the last twenty years, has become a meeting place for young people from around the world and one of the most interesting laboratories for new painting in Italy.

Love as a Glass of Water will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Bruno, publishing house based in Venice distributed internationally by Les Presses Du Réel, with critical texts by Antonio Grulli, Jennifer Higgie, Luna Miguel, Edi Muka, Tea Paci, Carlo Sala.

Media requests: Sara Zolla, sara [​at​] sarazolla.com