TIRANA, Sept. 22 – Artists from Albania and former Yugoslav countries have come together in Vienna in an exhibition curated by Albania’s Adela Demetja exploring contemporary art challenges in the region.
“While alternative and independent art spaces were founded in the 1970s in Western Europe and the U.S. in opposition to the art market, with their development playing an important role for the emergence of institutional critique, the alternative art scene in ex-Yugoslavia and Albania has emerged and developed for exactly the opposite reasons: the lack of contemporary art institutions and the absence of an art market,” says the Marx Halle Vienna gallery.
“Therefore, the independent art spaces played a significant role in the establishment of a system of contemporary fine art in this region and in its communication beyond the borders. In some cases, they are the only places where communication and discourse about contemporary art can take place,” organizers say.
“In light of the momentous changes that have occurred in the region and the sustained financial crisis, culture is the field which has suffered the most. The effects can be read from the current problems of public cultural institutions. Hence, the independent art spaces are currently the decisive sites for contemporary art,” they add.
Albania is represented in the exhibition by the Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art with works by Lumturi Blloshmi, Aurora Kalemi, Alketa Ramaj.
The exhibition will be open at the Marx Halle viennacontemporary from Sept. 22 to 25.
