TICA AirAlb residence artists open exhibition

TIRANA, April 18 – Albania, Italian, Macedonian and Georgian artists are coming together in the Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art (TICA) in the AirAlb 2013 programme. The exhibition which opens on April 19 at the House of Arts of the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana will introduce a joint project called Studio 203 with Stefano Romano /Italy, Eriselda ȯbo /Albania, Guido Affini /Italy) and solo works by Macedonia’s Gjorgje Jovanovik and Georgia’s Tekla Aslanishvili.
The artists will present for the public their artistic practice and previous projects in an open and informal event.
The Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art (TICA) Residency Program is dedicating its second term of AIRLAB to artists that work with participatory practices as their artistic strategy, in order to introduce new practices and a related discourse in the local scene.
Participatory art – the approach to art-making in which the audience is engaged directly in the creative process, allowing them to become co-authors, editors, and observers of the work – is one of the main developments in contemporary art today. These practices are incomplete without the viewer’s physical interaction, with its main intent to challenge the dominant form of making art.
Participatory art covers a full range of art forms and cross-cuts many different artistic practices. There are participatory film-makers, musicians, drama practitioners, writers, photographers, live-artists, textile artists, print makers, designers, animators, dancers, painters, sculptors and many more. This covers many different approaches that artists take to working with people, ranging from artists holding conversations with members of the public, to artists who undertake long-term workshop programs with groups, or communities.
Having given rise to strong critical positions that greet or problematise them, participatory art practices are almost unknown in the Albanian art scene.
The AIRLAB program consists of two residency periods per year and is made possible through the generous support of the Network Partnership 3 -year grant of Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. T.I.C.A. residency program is also supported by FAVA – Foundation for Albanian Visual Arts across Borders and the Austrian Embassy in Tirana