Tirana Biennale ’09

Hotel Dajti is almost ready to host the Fourth Edition of Tirana’s Biennale on September 18th. This year’s theme is “The symbolic efficiency of frame”, a quote that curator Edi Muka likes to borrow from the Slovenian philosopher Zizek. The whole concept after Tirana’s Biennale 2009 is the framing of different aspects of the reality in order to focus on the things one cannot see.
Being absent for four years, this “come-back” edition of Tirana Biennale will be full of surprises. One of which is that this year’s host is Hotel Dajti. “We couldn’t think of a better place. Dajti Hotel has the perfect historical and architectural frame for Biennale 09 and fits perfectly with this edition’s theme” explains Muka.
Also Tirana Biennale ’09 aims to expand from the visual arts towards architecture and urbanization, as a critical response to the frantic urban growth of Tirana.
Participating artists
There will be 60 artists from 30 different countries to take part at Tirana’s Biennale ’09. Some of them will use this opportunity, while being in Albania, to implement several projects in Tirana. Joa Ljunberg, Ana Dzokic, Marc Neelen and Corinne Diserens are some of the curators of this year’s Biennale.
Structure
Tirana’s Biennale 09 will preserve pretty much the same structure as in the previous years, with one episode after another, divided in small parts so that to create a better communication with the public. There will be three main episodes; the first one under the attention of Edi Muka and Joa Ljunberg, the second one will be attended by Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen and the third episode by Corinne Diserens, one of the most famous curators up to now. The second episode will shift from visual arts to architecture because of the many developments Albania and particularly Tirana have been experiencing nowadays with a lot of constructions, informal areas, lack of urban planning etc. So, a good part of the second episode will mostly focus on the discussion of these phenomena, which are not exclusively Albanian.
An interesting part of the fourth edition of Tirana’s Biennale will be the discussions after each edition. Each day there will be a different topic to discuss about what was previously seen in the exhibition.
Tirana Biennale IV will be opened from September 18th to October 22nd .