An exhibition that will remain open until the end of the year at the Tirana Art Lab will feature the works of Albanian artist Ergin Zaloshnja and Belarus-born artist Marina Naprushkina. The art’s curator is the Albanian Adela Demetja.
The exhibition is conceived around the socially engaged artistic practice and the active role of the artist in society. Both artists understand art and artistic practice as a way to communicate and negotiate in the public realm and as a device to reflect and criticize power structures.
Demetja has been the executive director of the Tirana Art Lab since 2010, when she steadily created a space positioned somewhere between production and exhibition. Its board consists of artists working in various artistic fields, from archeology to design and journalism.
“It is above all a space for reflection regarding the creative process, regarding the exhibiting process, regarding the relation between the creative process, representations and power structures on the local and international level,” Demetja said in an interview with the Austrian website, Widewalls.
The previous Double Feature exhibitions have also featured Albanian artists in cooperation with international ones. All shows have centered on different artistic and social motifs.
Marina Naprushkina was born in 1981 in Minsk, Belarus and lives and works in Berlin Germany. She is a political artist and activist working in the media of painting, video, and installation. Since 2007 she has been in charge of the Office for Anti-Propaganda, which participates in and organizes political actions and also publishes newspapers. Her current project is called New Neighborhood/Moabit and it’s a neighborhood initiative to support refugees, which started as a single initiative (Neue Nachbarschaft) and came to be one of the largest initiatives in Berlin supporting refugees.
Ergin Zaloshnja was born in 1979, in Tirana, and lives and works in Albania’s capital. He is an engaged and active artist working in the media of photography, installation and video. He is the founder of the political and sub-culture fanzine Sputnik.
Double Feature #8 is supported by the Albanian Ministry of Culture.
