TIRANA, Oct. 1 – Young contemporary artist Sead Kazanxhiu is representing Albania at the Goteborg international biennial for contemporary art in Sweden. Kazanxhi, 28, will represent Albania in the leading Nordic art biennial with his “Shtepizeza” (Little home) project, an installation of 2,500 small houses in pictures and video.
“The idea on this project stemmed from protests by Roma community activists who to this day have not been able to find a solution to the housing issue,” says Kallanxhiu who in late 2014 featured the installation in front of the Prime Minister’s office. He was inspired by a moving letter written by a Roma child calling on Santa Claus that his house is not demolished.
The 8th edition of the Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art “A story within a story…” is concerned with the possibility of imagining history as a participatory experience. In order to do so, the project will present works that look at history writing by unveiling the grammar of various sociopolitical junctures, rescuing events and their protagonists from historical oblivion and seeking to open up and expand readings of contemporary history.
The exhibition will be open throughout October.
Born in Fier, Kazanxhiu is a young contemporary Albanian Roma artist who lives and works in Tirana. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana in 2010. As a young artist, he has been very active taking part in several group exhibitions abroad and in Albania as well, coordinating different artistic projects.
In 2013, he worked as fellow in the artistic project called “Art as a language for communication between Roma and non-Roma.” He is also the author of the Roma monument which is placed in the yard of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth in Tirana.
