Pleurent Xhafa wins New York artist-in-residence

TIRANA, June 26 – Pleurad Xhafa has won a six-week artist-in-residence in New York for his “Trickle down- Crime scene” series of pictures documenting the homeless ‘occupying’ public spaces in Albania. Xhafa, 30, beat three other shortlisted artists in the 2014 Ardhje (Arrival) Award organized by the Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art (TICA).
Graduated from the Academy of Arts in Italy’s Bologna, Xhafa who lives and works in Tirana, pays strong attention to social and political phenomena.
The “Announcement” was another project he introduced in the exhibition, displaying a newspaper announcement where he was looking to hire 79 jobless men to be involved in a project marking the country’s 100th anniversary celebrations in 2012.
“The winner of the 2014 Ardhje Award is Pleurad Xhafa, for his critically engaged and investigative conceptual practice and uncompromising position as an artist who lends his voice to the underrepresented of society. Through his work he attends to the legacies of conceptual and documentary approaches in art, making it relevant in the landscape of contemporary art research and practice,” says the jury’s motivation.
“We hope that this award, an intensive six-week residency in New York, will be an opportunity to broaden the critical and reflexive way he has shown in his treatment of the social, political, and economic realities of Albanian society.”
The Ardhje Award is organized by T.I.C.A – Tirana institute of contemporary arts in collaboration with Foundation for a Civil Society, New York (Young Visual Artists Awards). The award is dedicated to Albanian young artists and its aim is to promote their artistic products locally and internationally. Each year from 2007 now, the partner organization in New York host in residency the wining artist by offering the opportunity to benefit from the unique context of New York art scene.