Edi Hila in “Year ’11” exhibit

TIRANA, March 30 – A special exhibition by veteran painter Edi Hila opened this week in the premises of Zeta gallery in Tirana. The “Year ’11” contemporary exhibition focuses on rural areas in Tirana and elsewhere and voices the painter’s concern for the demolition of some urban planning heritage sites such as the Pyramid where the new parliament will be built.
The solo exhibition will be open to the public until April 16.
Edi Hila’s career spans several decades, a period during which he has managed to survive political disillusion, persecution and censorship. The 1970s were a particularly difficult period for the artist, when he was forbidden from painting by the secret police serving the Albanian Communist dictatorship.
His work was seen as being too ‘impressionist’ and not conforming to the image the country wanted to project internally and abroad. The specific painting that caused Hila most problems looks rather innocent today, especially to those without personal experience of Socialist totalitarianism. The gentle Fauvism of the picture was rejected by the political class, who were offended by Hila’s omission of the feet of his figures (this was interpreted as an attempt to destabilise the system). The artist was consequently ostracized.
In the creative course of activity by Edi Hila, a lot of changes have occurred. Changes of both aspects, form and content, happened during two decades.
In the 90s, his creativity awakens the poetic nostalgia of a city painted with the muse of modern art dreaming, by spiritually and sincerely including a vague childhood situation.
“Edi Hila has drifted his creative work forward to create challenging and deeply real focused pictures. He achieves this by showing an active participation role as a human being beyond the chronics and facts. He is not a fan of ideology but a great fan of quality, instead, who can not be isolated in an autonomous life. This artistic stance gives him the opportunity to see ahead,” curators of his exhibitions say.