Emil Memon is a visual artist and musician who lived and worked in New York (1982-2018) and from 2018 lives and works in Koper/Capodistria, Slovenia. He studied at art academies in Florence (Academia di Belle Arti - BA in Painting), in Ljubljana (Academy of Fine Art – MA in Spatial Design and Graphic Art) and in New York (MFA in New Forms at Pratt Institute) as a Fulbright scholar.
Creation is a conceptual act for him to promote social consciousness and critical thought. At the same time, as an aesthetic practice characterized by links between different media it works in conjunction with a certain context. With its diverse and multimedia artistic practice, it is tempting modernism and popular culture and with pop aesthetics the logic of capitalism.
In addition to installation art, painting and graphics, he deals with film (Super8, Digital), video and music. He has produced several CDs and music videos independently or in collaboration with New York musicians.
In the 1980s, he had several solo exhibitions in Yugoslavia (e.g., in Škuc Gallery Ljubljana, Gallery of Contemporary Art Zagreb, SKC Gallery Belgrade) and in the New York galleries, e.g. Leo Castelli Gallery, worked for artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Mario Merz, Donald Judd, and Dennis Oppenheim in New York galleries, f.ex. Leo Castelli. He participated in several group exhibitions around the world (New York, Berlin, Miami, Bogota, Munich, Ljubljana, Washington DC, Berlin, Miami, Bogota, Beograd, Hague, Manchester, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Lugano). In the New York's galleries and clubs, he has worked with installations and had concerts and performances (Club 34, Club USA, Super Club, Limelight, The Tunnel, The Roxy, Danceteria ...). His works are in some US private collections, the Slovenian Embassy in Washington DC, the ICC (The International Criminal Court) in The Hague and the DIVA Station Collection.
Photo (in black jacket): Kevin Downs
Production: Emil Memon, 1983/95
Video "Blue Movie/Schizophrenia" is a shorter edited version of Emil Memon's silent movie "1983/Blue movie" shot in NYC in 1983, reconceptualized as a music video (music by Emil Memon and Robert Aaron). (Music video for Emil Memo...
Production: Emil Memon, Pawel Wojtasik, 1983
"1983/Blue movie" was made on the basis of Memon's Diploma Work at the Florence Academy entitled 'History of Art and Non-Narrative Cinema', with references to film makers, such as Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Maya Deren, Sergei Eisenstein an...