Some 25 international artists will be showcasing artworks in different techniques like video art, paintings, photographs, performances and installations in the two-day festival.
TIRANA, July 29 – Videos, photography, performances, workshops, installations, electronic and live music be featured for two days at the Porto Palermo 19th century castle in Vlora in the third edition of Art Kontakt contemporary art festival. Collectors and art lovers will also have the opportunity to purchase works of art that are part of “Uncharted” exhibition during the 2014 edition of the Art Kontakt Festival scheduled for August 8 to 10.
“Uncharted is an unknown factor. It is a puzzle in which we attempt to use rational schemes and scientific rigor to offer a logical explanation of place,” organizers say.
The artists and selected works in this edition of the Art Kontakt Festival represent a pattern of artistic and spiritual practices that, in reflecting notions of geographic boundaries, become the focal points of this imaginary map.
“As in the Arboretum by David Byrne we try to create a mental map of an imaginary territory. In this place photographs, videos, drawings, installations and poetic conceptual performances, constitute the landscape of the artist’s mind. The ways in which these works come together, collide and intertwine diagrammatically outline the many facets of this festival,” organizers add.
This will be the third edition of this festival of contemporary art, which has already taken the form of an international biennial. Some 25 international artists will be showcasing artworks in different techniques like video art, paintings, photographs, performances, installations etc.
Art Kontakt is considered a meeting point for artists from Albania, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The purpose of this festival is to bring into focus contemporary art trends in Albania and internationally, the development of multi-disciplinary art in Albania, the exchange of artistic practices between artists and cultural organizations in the region, to strengthen the roots of co-existence in the region through art and culture.
In the diversity of activities of this contemporary art festival, there will be plenty of innovations, and a flow of original artistic projects, workshops and performances. A special section will be dedicated to Adrifort project. The public and media will be given information on the importance of the Adrifort and the importance of public and private partnerships regarding cultural heritage management. Included will be an audio-visual art project of music by producer Leonard Toma who will project images of Adrifort fortifications, accompanied by sounds of electronic music mixed with ethnic music from different Adriatic and Ionian countries.
In addition to visual arts, this festival will be enriched with the sounds of live contemporary experimental music. DJ-s from Albania and the region will be playing music until the early hours of the morning.
“Uncharted” will present the final video documentary at Venice International Performance Art Week, which will be held on 13 to 20 December 2014. The video will be a presentation of artistic events that will occur during the two days of Art Kontakt Festival 2014.
The Venice International Performance Art Week is an important event of art performance, and the purpose of this collaboration with Art Kontakt is the promotion of Albanian contemporary artists. More than 50 international performance artists will be present with their works.
A top undiscovered European destination
Earlier this year, Fodor’s Travel Guide ranked Porto Palermo, the host of Art Kontakt festival, as the number one Undiscovered European Destinations.
“Nestled among rolling green hills just south of the town of Himar롩s Porto Palermo. This Albanian village keeps a low profile, but features a towering 18th-century castle that overlooks a sparkling bay. Visitors can explore its well-preserved grounds, and take in the coastline’s picturesque scenery,” says the portal.
The castle of Ali Pasha
Following its capture from the French in 1798, the land around Butrint fell under the imperial estates of the Ottoman Empire and remained ‘Turkish’ until 1912. The most prominent Ottoman agent in the area at the time was the notorious Ali Pasha of Tepelena (1741-1822).
Ali Pasha constructed a series of redoubtable fortresses as his territory grew, most notably at Tepelena, Gjirokastra, Ioannina – where he made his capital – as well as at Likurs, a few miles to the north of Butrint on hills overlooking modern Saranda. Feted for bringing renewed prosperity to Epirus, he entertained a series of notable Western emissaries; the poet Lord Byron recorded his encounter with Ali Pasha in 1809 in his work Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
A small fortress at the mouth of the Vivari Channel has often been attributed to Ali Pasha, although it appears on the Venetian cadastral map of 1718 and may have been the possession of the Corfiot Gonemi family.
The channel-mouth fort as it stands is a small rectangular structure (22 x 30 m) with battered walls. The earliest building within the later fort is a large rectangular tower supported by three barrel-vaulted rooms. The main area of occupation would have been in the upper levels of the tower (now destroyed). Around this tower is a later circuit wall. The Vivari Channel fort’s circuit includes two battered round towers with firing embrasures on its seaward side and two irregularly sized battered square towers, again with firing loops or windows, looking up the channel towards Butrint.
The principal entrance of the fort lay beneath the former dwelling space to the north, where the central vaulted chamber, protected by musket ports, opened directly onto the Vivari Channel; it is fair to assume that in this phase the fort functioned as a small naval base, with its central area filled with water and steps leading up to parapet level. The parapet ran around three sides of the fort and provided cannon platforms. The south wall has comparatively fewer firing loops than elsewhere, largely because of two arched garderobes, with rails for screens and chutes out into the extramural area and a central low arch with a similar chute, perhaps for slops; there is also a circular firing loop adjacent to the southwest corner tower.
In c. 1808 Ali Pasha secretly requested military assistance from the English against the French, and Foreign Secretary George Canning duly instructed Lt. Col. William Martin Leake to present Ali with artillery pieces in a bid to unite all the Albanian chiefdoms against the French. Consequently, by 1819 the fortified castle with its battery of guns was able to exchanged salutes with the British Naval 40 gun frigate HMS Glasgow. (butrint.org)
The program of
“Art Kontakt Festival”
Friday | August 08, 2014, Porto Palermo
18:00
Opening ceremony of the Festival
Reception for sponsors, journalists and special guests
19:00
Open public entrance to the exhibition “Uncharted”.
19:30
Workshop with international artists: “Transforming a cucumber into a pickle. The process in between”
With the participation of the artists: Iva Lulashi, Sulltane Tusha, Barbara Prenka ,Thomas Braida, Enej Gala, Ne߫a Zamar, Justine luce, Edison Pashkaj, Aleksander Veliڦ#269;ek, Alberto Caruso
20:00
Tirana Art Lab prezanton: ilir lluka “metamorphic narratives”/sound performance
21:00 -04.00
Live concert & DJ/VJ until the early hours of the morning
At dawn
Meeting on the “(B) ark of solidarity
Saturday | August 09, 2014
17:00
Workshops: Exchange of experiences and ideas on contemporary artistic practices
19:00
Visits to the exhibition “Uncharted”
Display of the documentary film, “Not a carwash” (50′), which reflects the battle between students and police at the Academy of Film and Multimedia “Marubi”, an event that occurred in 2009.
20:00
Live performance “Multiplicity” Klod Dedja/Ema Andrea
21:00-04.00
Live concert &DJ/VJ
At dawn
Meeting on the “(B) ark of solidarity
Sunday | August 10, 2012
12:00
Closing ceremony of the Festival
