The multi-layered legacies have left their traces in the landscape; they are reflected in the multicultural constitution of the region, in the ongoing ethno-national struggles and the social and economic relations, says the photographer.
TIRANA, June 17 – “Exploration of a landscape, historical legacies and everyday life in the Macedonian-Albanian border area.” That’s the new exhibition that will open at the Zeta art gallery in Tirana by Austrian historian and photographer Robert Pichler.
Supported by the Austrian embassy in Tirana, “Exploration of a landscape” is the outcome of a multi-annual involvement with historical legacies and post-socialist life in the Macedonian-Albanian border area. “The multi-layered legacies have left their traces in the landscape; they are reflected in the multicultural constitution of the region, in the ongoing ethno-national struggles and the social and economic relations. Overcoming the dictatorial regime in Albania and the authoritarian order in Macedonia has not led to the upturn so many people had dreamt of,” says the author.
“The neo-capitalist system has created new dependencies, swept away social security and created inequalities that are significantly more pronounced than in the West. On the other hand, the opening of the border has triggered a hitherto unprecedented mobility, which allowed the region, in a short time, to develop a relationship with the outside world. The dynamics of social transformation have vastly accelerated but no clear direction is recognizable. The processes of change are too complex and too contradictory are their orientations.”
The exhibition scheduled to be launched on June 24 will remain open to the public until July 4.
Robert Pichler received his PhD in history at the Karl-Franzens University Graz. Due to his anthropologically inspired approach to history, he conducted extensive field-research in Northern and Southern Albania and in Western Macedonia. As a photographer he works in the field of social documentary photography. He has recently published a photo book on the Albanian-Macedonian border area that fuses documentary and artistic photography.
