Urban confessions of Susan Logoreci

TIRANA, Sept.24- In her LA home, the studio is Susan’s favorite place to hang around. On the desk there are the drafts of large pictures of her neighborhood but also family albums where photographs of Shkodra in the 30s and 40s show her connection to Albania. Her imagination and her parents’ memory have fed her perception about her home country. Today, Susan believes that even her clothing style has borrowed something from those black and white photos of dresses with high collars or pleated skirts. Her brother Thomas, now a successful producer, has visited Albania and updated his vision while Susan still has that immaculate perception of 1940s. She cannot speak Albanian very fluently because her father died when she was young. However, her connection to Albania never ceased to exist. She still examines pres articles about Albania and remembers fondly the times when she needed to explain her last name to her friends.
Susan combines her drawing with her photography, splitting the day accordingly. Logoreci is in high demand in the art galleries of San Francisco and New York. She draws inspiration from her perception of urban space. Asked about this choice she explains that a hidden past can influence her work as much as a present impression. An illustration of this is her work where a city is portrayed in the form of a big ship. Susan’s inspiration is also her pet theme. She explains how the identity of urban centers should be protected from the corrosion that has started to harm them. Her works share equal parts of intimate and public elements. The images that Susan offers are captured from high rise points of views so that they form a unique mass. From high above she can see the development of a city, the mistakes that have been made, and with the eye of a “city psychologist,” brings an entire new vision of a city that has long been seen as static. “Buildings affect life,” she explains and sometimes looking to a city in which you live from the window of an airplane can explain to you some of the daily problems you live through. “I have always believed that through art we can raise consciousness. The times of quiet and beautiful art for its sake have died. Art should be a rebellion towards the moments that make us feel uncomfortable in our community life,” Logoreci says. Her art is a rebellion towards the changes that her city is experiencing. The urban reality will keep focusing her work as long as she can realize through her window the absurdity of the change. Logoreci believes that it is more important to use art in order to show life as it is then as an attempt to explain beauty.