‘The Treasure Map,’ Albania under Italian occupation

TIRANA, May 8 – Italian artist Leone Contini, the first artist in residency for the 2013 Tirana Art Lab international residency program has introduced his artistic practice and the project “The Treasure Map” to be developed during his stay in Albania. Between April to June 2013, Contini will conduct artistic research into different cities of Albania. The project idea flourished when the artist founded an old map of Albania under the Italian occupation. The map belonged to his grandfather who, during the WWII was stationed in the Balkans.
“Italy has removed from its public debate its colonial past, likewise amnesia has destroyed his grandfathers’ memories. The map provides for a new chance to go back in time in the marked locations in the map and fill in the gaps generated by an irreversible loss of information, an attempt to retrace forgotten paths expelled from individual and collective memory,” organizers say.
Born in Italy’s Florence, Leone Contini, 37, is an artist who holds a BA from the University of Siena. His artistic research is based on the relationships between art, anthropology and ethnography. Contini’s exhibition in Albania is part of the Tirana Art Lab international residency program that is open to artists, curators and theoreticians from all fields of contemporary culture. The residency gives the participants the opportunity to spend a distinct amount of time in Albania, to meet and to collaborate with artists and experts from the region, and leads to the production of a new work informed by the research on site.
Tirana Art Lab was founded in 2010 with the aim to promote emerging artists from Albania as well as from Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe. It also commissions and supports new productions by national and international artists on site.