Dear Mice, congratulations for your success at Larnaca Biennale 2021!
Who is artist Mice Jankulovski ? Share with us a few things about you and your work in general.
Throughout my life, I have been extremely active – both professionally and socially. From an early age, still in short pants, I was active in making drawings and illustrations that were published first in the children’s newspapers, then in the students’ newspapers, and in the end in professional daily newspapers and magazines. I drew caricatures in parallel, had my own distinctive character and had great success in the field of artistic caricature and satirical painting (especially on glass). Working on animated films and writing palindromes are explorations through which I have satisfied my curiosity and desire to express myself in other media, while constantly working and researching in drawing and painting. But the varied experiences have built me as an artist so that today art professionals recognize me as a multimedia artist. Nevertheless, the last experience, my monochrome painting in black, has extraordinal acceptance among the public and I consider it is the most important of my professional life (so far).
But curiosity is an attitude, and as I continued with the exploration, I find more and more interesting stuff about the black, and it becomes a never-ending story. At the moment I’m totally obsessed with the blackest black color ever known so far (recently discovered by the new technologies, nanotechnology) that absorbs the light more than 99%. Paintings created with this color make the audience discover the paintings step by step as they approach them, making the effect of surprise when discovering the rich content in the paintings that seem like black squares or rectangles at the first sight.
And me? All this is extremely motivating for me as a painter and as time passes, I’m freeing myself from other activities and devoting myself completely to painting.
What was your reaction when you heard that you were awarded?
Awards are like lighthouses – milestones that show you are on the right way. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean that if you don’t have lighthouses on the road it is not the right road! I would surely go on the same road despite everything because it is my road. But you have a sense of accomplishment and great satisfaction when there are lighthouses along your road.
Tell us a few words about your awarded work.
215, 2021
Triptych, acrylic on canvas, 195 x 390 cm (195 x 130 cm / each)
It is entirely Cypriot artwork since it was created in Larnaca !
This work is one of the most representative works of mine, and it is totally in line with the attributes of my overall artwork in black:
Monochrome – made only with one color – black
Modularity – it is a triptych of three equal parts that can be considered alone, but also make one whole
Multiplication – it contains the multiplication of circles (the ideal form of infinity) set in one horizontal line, inspired by the specific natural element of Larnaca – the infinite horizon
Minimalism – all I wanted to say with this work is said with minimum elements.
What was your overall impression about Larnaca Biennale 2021?
Larnaca Biennale’s development is obvious and fast. The Coronavirus hit us all, but the Larnaca Biennale was at its very beginning and this negative event probably influenced it even more. But, regardless of this, it showed in its second edition determination that it is going to be a great event and meeting point for extraordinary artists. These kinds of events are all about it – to be a meeting point for artists and a place to show their most recent art.
A message you would like to send to artists that will apply in the future for participation in the Larnaca Biennale.
As for a message to the artists, I’m always saying that artists are the ones in society that are pushing the world forward. As younger the artists understood that, the better. To participate in the events like this the artists, especially the young ones, should consider it as an investment in themselves, as an opportunity to express their creative energy and to fight (but with artistic weapons) against stagnation, mediocracy, alienation, consumerism, … everything that stops the world from creative and contextual development. As everything good you do cannot be only for you, but at the same time it affects the others as well, the participation in the Larnaca Biennale of the artists is not only in their favor but also, at the same time contribute to the development of the art in general. Let’s not forget that the works that we are creating and exposing in appropriate events are part of future art history.
What was your overall impression about Larnaca Biennale 2021?
Larnaca Biennale’s development is obvious and fast. The Coronavirus hit us all, but the Larnaca Biennale was at its very beginning and this negative event probably influenced it even more. But, regardless of this, it showed in its second edition determination that it is going to be a great event and meeting point for extraordinary artists. These kinds of events are all about it – to be a meeting point for artists and a place to show their most recent art.
A message you would like to send to artists that will apply in the future for participation in the Larnaca Biennale.
As for a message to the artists, I’m always saying that artists are the ones in society that are pushing the world forward. As younger the artists understood that, the better. To participate in the events like this the artists, especially the young ones, should consider it as an investment in themselves, as an opportunity to express their creative energy and to fight (but with artistic weapons) against stagnation, mediocracy, alienation, consumerism, … everything that stops the world from creative and contextual development. As everything good you do cannot be only for you, but at the same time it affects the others as well, the participation in the Larnaca Biennale of the artists is not only in their favor but also, at the same time contribute to the development of the art in general. Let’s not forget that the works that we are creating and exposing in appropriate events are part of future art history.
