Scene
This Saturday, January 24, Monika Milas, a restorer and artist focusing on spatial and sculptural installations, drawings, and video works, will have her exhibition titled #000000 – between destruction and transformation. The exhibition will take place at Galerija Menza, the cultural center Nigdjezemska in Zadar, starting at 8 PM.
In the work of Monika Milas, plastic appears as a material of transition, at once ordinary and problematic, familiar and suppressed. Through the act of burning, the material loses its original function and enters a state of instability, altering its form, texture, and meaning. This process does not aim at spectacle; instead, it calls for slower observation and a willingness to remain within the moment of change.
Here, burned plastic is not merely a physical residue, but a carrier of tension between destruction and emergence. Its deformations, folds, and fractures point to a condition in which something is breaking down, yet has not entirely disappeared. Within this in-between state, the artist identifies an emotional parallel, an experience of transition, loss of stability, and the simultaneous possibility of reconfiguration, one that exceeds the personal and becomes socially recognizable.
Alongside the spatial installation, the video work Echo functions as a quiet digital reflection of the same process. Rather than documenting the object, the video translates the material into movement and contrast, fragmenting the image and allowing it to reveal itself only partially. The image operates as an echo, something that cannot be fully grasped, but is sensed through rhythm and vibration.
The exhibition #000000 – between destruction and transformation does not attempt to provide answers or close off meaning. Instead, it invites viewers to dwell within a state of change, to observe the material and their own responses as the boundaries between physical process and internal experience gradually dissolve.
Monika Milas (1997, Zagreb) graduated from the Department of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2022. Since 2019, she has been actively creating and exhibiting in both gallery and public spaces, focusing on spatial and sculptural installations, drawing, and video works.
She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has realized three solo exhibitions. She has also been involved in several theater productions in the fields of scenography and visual design in Slovenia and Hungary. Since 2022, she has collaborated with various actors in the regional electronic and music scene.
In 2024, together with colleagues, she launched SNOP, a program of experimental and ambient events. In addition to her solo artistic practice, she works as a restorer.
