TIRANA, March 26 – Two Albanian and German contemporary artists are having their abstract paintings showcased at the Tirana Art Lab centre in downtown Tirana as part of the contemporary art centre’s second Double Feature project introducing pairs of artistic positions.
This second Double Feature exhibition is dedicated to painting and introduces for the first time the oeuvre of two contemporary abstract painting positions to the Albanian audience, says Tirana Art Lab.
Born in Albania but educated in Greece, Albanian contemporary artist Alma Bakiaj works with different mediums including painting, installation, photography and video art. In her practice she focuses on the research, observation and analyzes of different human conditions taking as a starting point her life and everyday experience. Her paintings are detailed observations on a specific behaviour, gesture, movement or act, allowing her at the same time to deeply engage with the subject and reach a certain level of abstraction resulting in what one could call ‘uncertain images,’ says Tirana Art Lab.
Meanwhile, Viola Bittl, who recently showcased a series of paintings at the Tirana Art Lab as part of an artist-in-residence, is a 35-year German artist whose paintings compositions and situations constitute little life sequences. The relationship between the objects, the way in which they approach, avoid, touch or keep distance from each other, their placement and attitude toward the background, can be read as the resembling of inter-human relation and their position within their surroundings and the world at large.
Speaking about the Double Feature project, curators Adela Demetja and Romeo Kodra say that by exhibiting two artistic positions together, they would like to set up the ground for the contextualization of the artists and their works as well as build up a historical narrative necessary for the developments of contemporary art in Albania and the region.
“The structure of the event enables us to pair artistic positions with every exhibition differently, making it possible to create mutual connections and references for both the positions. We primarily aim in conceptualizing; curating and delivering exhibitions with a high artistic quality and relevance as well as to motivate and create a space for discussion starting for the discourses initiated by the art works.”
Double Feature is a series of exhibitions that will bring together national and international positions, positions from different disciplines and different generations.
The first Double Feature project in late 2014 featured Croatian artist Nemanja Cvijanovic and the Bosnian born artist Ibro Hasanovic.
The works exhibited try to deconstruct certain social and political events and question the imageries creation machinery and the role it plays in the recent post-digital age.
