Helidon Xhixha Echoes Global Concerns With 'Bliss', London Design Biennale
Acclaimed artist Helidon Xhixha has been selected to take over the central courtyard of Somerset House during the inaugural London Design Biennale this September. Representing his home country of Albania, his work “Bliss” will focus on the political and economic issues that Europe is currently facing.
A highly important source of inspiration for Xhixha’s design is that of the late Renaissance artists’ interpretations of the Ideal City especially with regard to their iconography. Repeatedly, artists attempted to create their own visual representation of utopia, with the recurring theme throughout these works being the use of concentric circles. Xhixha has returned to these ideas and applied the use of concentric circles into his own sculpture.
The shape of the sculpture, with its benches oscillating outwards from the center, draw clear inspiration from the Renaissance ideal cities. The benches offer a place for interaction and engagement with one another, reflecting the need for a sense of community and unification within society. Sitting on the benches and looking into the central mirrors, we are forced into a position of interaction with the people around us and with our own reflection. Xhixha’s structure reflects not only ourselves, but the others who chose to sit on the benches promoting engagement with each other.
Helidon Xhixha was born in Durrës, Albania, in December 1970. Raised into a family of artists, Xhixha inherited his respect for the Fine Arts and passion for sculpting from his father. Working with a base of Stainless Steel he uses this medium to manipulate light to create his works which are generally site specific pieces. With pieces already in the US, mainland Europe and the Middle East, Xhixha was one of the participating artists at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
His ‘Iceberg’ sculpture, which addressed the subject of climate change, became the first installation to be given permission to travel along the Grand Canal at the Venice Biennale and was featured in The New York Times, The Guardian and CNN.
His work is currently being shown in Pietrasanta, Tuscany where he has for the first time put his work into marble. Creating a softer and distilled manipulation of light this new work is a dramatic contract to his usually sharp steel sculptures.
The London Design Biennale is being produced by the team behind the London Design Festival. The curated, three-week long Biennale will overlap the Festival, bringing a new international element to London, complementing its citywide programme of commissions and partner events every two years. Sir John Sorrell, Ben Evans and Dr Christopher Turner are president, executive director and director of the London Design Biennale.
Helidon Xhixha London Design Biennale Somerset House – 7th – 27th September 2016
