Vernissage, Saturday, January, 24 – 25, 2014
Talk, Saturday, February, 1, 2014
In the context of the exhibition “Uninspired Architecture: Public Space and Public Memory in Albania,” curators Marco Mazzi and Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei will enter into a conversation on the exhibited artworks and the relation between the material presence of the communist period in Albania, its repression and remembrance, and the possibilities of artistic intervention.
This event-exhibition, taking place during one week in Sincresis Spazio d’arte in Empoli, Italy, will sketch out a potential exhibition on the (re)enactment of public memory in public space, fleeting or more stable forms of monumentality, and potential modes of reactivation in different types of media. On the cover of the book from which this event-exhibition borrows its title, Marco Mazzi suggests that “photography is the exact opposite of pure immediacy.” The process of photography’s infinite deceleration from the immediacy of the event until an immeasurable standstill, which is emphasized by the importance of publications in the exhibition space – hermetic structures compared to the openness of the painting –, is traced through a series of works that all engage in a certain rearrangement of history and memory present in Albanian public space.
Curated by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei and Marco Mazzi.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Ag, Diego Cossentino, Vincent Van Gerven Oei, Adam Staley Groves, Pim van der Heiden, Armando Lulaj, Iva Lulashi, Marco Mazzi
SOME INFORMATIONS ABOUT SOME ARTISTS
Diego Cossentino
He was born in Florence in 1985. He is a photographer, visual artist, musician and producer. As a teacher he teaches in various schools of photography and visual arts. He lives and works in Florence.
Armando Lulaj
“Writer of plays, texts on risk territory, film author and producer of conflict images, Armando Lulaj is a lucid and disrespectful analyst of the dispositive and mechanisms of power hidden backstage of the international claimed forms. He has no desire to rivendicate the context of local belonging; rather, he is orientated toward accentuating the border between economical power, fictional democracy and social disparity in a global context”. In 2003 he founded the Debatikcenter of Contemporary Art (DCCA) to analyze the recent changes in contemporary society. Recently, Debatikcenter (DCPD) has become more of a centre for film production. Armando Lulaj has participated in exhibitions such as: The Prague Biennial (2003, 2007), Tirana Biennial (2005), the Albanian Pavilion in the 52 Venice Biennial (2007), the 4th Gothenburg Biennale (2007), the 8th Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland (2009), the 6th Berlin Biennial (2010) and the 63′ Berlinale Film Festival (2013). His work is present in important public and private collections (writed by Marco Scotini).
Iva Lulashi
She was born in Tirana (AL) in 1988. In 2012 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in painting where she is currently enrolled in Visual Arts and Performing Arts. You live and work in Venice.
Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
Born in 1983, he studied composition, linguistics, conceptual art and philosophy. His work has been exhibited internationally and has curated exhibitions in Albania, Italy, Holland, Turkey. Van Gerven Oei is director of the Department of Eagles foundation in Tirana and follows the multilingual publishing house Uitgeverij. Van Gerven Oei lives and works in Tirana in Albania.
www.vangervenoei.com
Marco Mazzi
He was born in Florence in 1980. He has made the following solo exhibitions:
(2006) Portraits and Intimacy, curated by Sergio Risaliti, lemon house of Villa Rondinelli, Fiesole, (2007) Alessandro Piangiamore, Marco Mazzi, curated by Gaia Pasi, Daniele Ugolini Contemporary Gallery, Florence, (2008) Voyager, curated by Koichi Watari, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, (2009) The Naturalization of Vision, curated by Lorenzo Calucci, Museo Laboratorio Arte Contemporanea (MLAC), Rome, (2011) Kiju Yoshida and a vision of Fear curated by Hideyuki Doi, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, Shizuoka, (2013), Marco Mazzi, Sincresis, Empoli (Florence).
Selected group exhibitions. (2005) Rotte Metropolitane, curated by Lorenzo Bruni, Faculty of Architecture, Florence, (2006) Goodmorningbabilonia curated by Sergio Risaliti, Galleria Marella – 798 Art District, Beijing, (2007) Nonplusultra, curated by Gaia Pasi, Daniele Ugolini Contemporary, Florence, Fabbrica Europa, curated by Pietro Gaglianò and Gaia Pasi, Stazione Leopolda, Florence, (2010) The dispersed medium: Keren Cytter, Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio, Marco Mazzi, Clemens von Wedemeyer, edited by Eleonora Farina and Michela Gulia, Museum of Contemporary Art Laboratory (MLAC), Rome.
