Minor Narratives @ Logu i Shkëndijes, Tiranë, July 2, 2015
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04 August, 2015 / No comment
Who Is Afraid of a Sardine Can?
The Department of Eagles is happy to announce the residency of artistic researchers Giulia Morucchio and Irene Rossini on the different home-made devices he alter radio and television receptivity during the communist period. “To disobey in order to take action is the byword of all......
12 May, 2015 / No comment
Presentation of the Albanian Lapidar Survey @ Tulla, March 26, 2015
Në vazhdën e prezantimeve të librave, autorëve, artistëve dhe nismave të shoqërisë civile jemi të lumtur të kemi të ftuar “Departamentin e Shqiponjave” për një prezantim të Hulumtimit mbi Lapidarët e Shqipërisë të enjten dt 26 mars, në ora 19:00. Prezantimi do të mbahet nga......
25 March, 2015 / No comment
Announcing “Workers Leaving the Studio. Looking Away from Socialist Realism”
(English below) “PUNËTORËT DALIN NGA STUDIOJA. DUKE MOS PARË MË REALIZMIN SOCIALIST” 27 shkurt – 5 prill 2015 Më 27 shkurt 2015, ora 18.00, Galeria Kombëtare e Arteve dhe Departamenti i Shqiponjave kanë kënaqësinë e veçantë të hapin për publikun në sallën e ekspozitave të......
06 February, 2015 / No comment
Work in Progress: Conny Karlsson Lundgren – “Koncert në vitin 2014″
Photography by Xheni Alushi....
17 November, 2014 / No comment
Book Presentation “Uninspired Architecture” @ Dryphoto
The book presentation of Marco Mazzi’s Uninspired Architecture, with Marco Mazzi and Emanuele Porcinai, curated by Vittoria Ciolini at Dryphoto Artecontemporanea, Prato, September 11, 2014. Photography by Andrea Abati....
16 November, 2014 / No comment
Exhibition Opening “Unstraight Alliance Art Residency 2014″ @ Zeta Galeri
Opening of the exhibition “Unstraight Alliance Art Residency 2014″ at Zeta Galeri, Tirana on September 2, 2014, featuring Jepi me gojë by Kosovar performance collective HAVEIT and Koncert në vitin 2014 by Swedish artist Conny Karlsson Lundgren. Photography by Xheni Alushi....
04 September, 2014 / No comment
Performance documentation: HAVEIT – “Jepi me gojë”
Photography by Xheni Alushi....
02 September, 2014 / No comment
Albanian Lapidar Survey Documentary
Driving 7,000 km all over Albania, documenting 657 sites with over 50,000 images in 50 days: one epic stop-motion documentary shot through the wind shield....
01 September, 2014 / No comment
Lapidar Density in 1970
Based on data from the State Archives, we were able to construct the following heatmap of the density of lapidars in Albania per region in 1970, that is, when most lapidars had already been built. This map was based on the following numbers from AQSH......
29 May, 2014 / No comment
The Day of the Martyrs
Traditionally, May 5 is the day on which martyrs of the fatherland are commemorated all around Albania. This specific date was chosen as it was on May 5 that national hero Qemal Stafa was murdered. Today I went to have a look at the ceremony in Tirana......
05 May, 2014 / No comment
“Lapidari,” the Script
A while ago I posted a link to the film-poem “Lapidari,” whose screenplay was written by Viktor Gjika. Below I include the photographs of the original screenplay and the technical scenario that I made in the Film Archives....
25 April, 2014 / No comment
Naum Prifti – Lapidarët anës Rrugës
One of the other articles kindly sent to me by Raino Isto, Naum Prifti’s text “Lapidarër anës Rrugës” (Lapidars along the road), published in Ylli from November 1966. At some point he describes a car trip from Elbasan to Pogradec (where there are indeed quite some lapidars......
19 April, 2014 / No comment
Enver Hoxha’s Letter to Kristaq Rama, Muntas Dhrami, and Shaban Hadëri
Yesterday I had the pleasure catching up on Skype with Raino Isto, an American scholar of Albanian cultural heritage from the University of Maryland, whom I met about a year ago in Tirana. Raino recently finished his MA Thesis entitled “In It We Should See......
07 April, 2014 / No comment
Workshop at the University and new research assistants
Today Matthias invited Vincent to give a guest presentation at the University of Tirana, MSc Geography program in a class on cultural landscapes. After a thorough introduction to the development of the concept of cultural landscape, different attitudes and theoretical stances toward it, and practical......
01 April, 2014 / No comment
Looking for military maps
One of the most important ingredients for successful field work is good maps. The maps of Albania currently available on the market contain gross inaccuracies and don’t have the right scale to display all the dusty backroads that Google Maps and Wikimapia seem to indicate.......
28 March, 2014 / No comment
Meeting Muharrem Xhafa and Pajtim Hoxha of the PPSH
Archeologist Iris Pojani, who had also brought me into contact with Thoma Thomai, was also kind enough to put me into contact with someone else, First Secretary of the Labor Party of Albania (PPSH), Muharrem Xhafa, also a former member of the Central Committee. I......
26 March, 2014 / No comment
A meeting with sculptor Thoma Thomai
Today I met with sculptor Thoma Thomai, an Albanian artist who worked on several monuments from the communist period such as the memorial in Barmash and the Skënderbeg monument on the road to Krujë, which was massacred during its “reconstruction.” After studying at the Liceu......
25 March, 2014 / No comment
Viktor Gjika & Esat Ibro – “Lapidari” (1986)
The Central Albanian State Film Archive is currently digitalizing most of its materials, including the wonderful short documentary “Lapidari” by scenarist Viktor Gjika and director Esat Ibro. The documentary constructs a mythology of an Albanian lapidar monument, developing from grave mound on a battleground to......
14 March, 2014 / No comment
Marco Mazzi in conversation with Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei @ Sincresis
Marco Mazzi in conversation with Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Feb. 1, 2014 at Sincresis spazio d’arte, Empoli, Italy, in the context of the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture.”...
02 February, 2014 / No comment
Interview with Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei is co-curator of the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania,” also contributing two works. His video work “Rrezik (after Bruce Andrews),” based on the poem “Danger Risk Hazard Jeopardy Peril” and commissioned by co-curator Marco Mazzi......
23 January, 2014 / No comment
Interview with Ag
Ag is a collective participating in the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania.” Their overnight intervention “Red Lenin and Stalin” consisted of painting the Stalin and damaged Lenin statue behind the National Gallery red. The next morning, the statues were cleaned......
23 January, 2014 / No comment
Interview with Pim van der Heiden
Pim van der Heiden is one of the artists participating in the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania.” His work “Retrogeography of Enver Hoxha’s Statue’s Life” retraces the life of the statue of Enver Hoxha on Skënderbeg Square in Tirana, from......
15 January, 2014 / No comment
Interview with Iva Lulashi
Iva Lulashi is one of the artists participating in the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania.” Her untitled work from 2013 comprises a series of nine paintings, invoking photographic images from the communist period. Department of Eagles: Your work often seems......
14 January, 2014 / No comment
Interview with Armando Lulaj
Armando Lulaj is one of the artists participating in the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania.” His work “NEVER” (2012) consists of the video documentation of an intervention on Mount Shpirag overlooking the southern city of Berat, switching the first two......
07 January, 2014 / No comment
Nick Skiadopoulos Speaks at the Book Presentation “Pedagogies of Disaster” @ Friend’s Book House
Book presentation of the proceedings of the conference “Pedagogies of Disaster” at Friend’s Book House in Tirana. The presentation was accompanied by a talk from Nick Skiadopoulos, “Pedagogies of Disaster: A Conference as a Symptom of its Title.” The proceedings can be ordered as hardcopy or......
22 October, 2013 / No comment
Exhibition Opening “Unstraight Alliance Art Residency 2013″ @ FAB Gallery
Opening of the exhibition “Unstraight Alliance Art Residency 2013″ at FAB Gallery, Tirana on September 17, 2013, featuring the short film Come Inside Me by Albanian cinematographer Ergys Meta and I’m Every Lesbian by Swedish artist Sofia Hultin. Photography by Xheni Alushi....
17 September, 2013 / No comment
Sofia Hultin – “I’m Every Lesbian / Jam çdo lezbike” Audio Tour
Të dashura lezbike të Tiranës, “Jam çdo lezbike” është një shëtitje në qytet, një guidë në formë audioje dhe një hartë në të cilën tregohet një pjesë e historisë sonë në Tiranë. Ajo bazohet në historitë që me aq bujari disa prej jush kanë ndarë......
15 September, 2013 / No comment