“Albania: the spirit of times” exhibition to tour around Italy-(one Guri Madhi’s work presented)

July 10, 2018 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Guri Madhi “Battle of Mushqeta”(fragment)

“Albania: the spirit of the times,” inaugurated on June 30, 2018, at the  Acre Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA), is conceived as a moving museum exhibition, with the starting point being Calabria, the Arbëresh epicenter in Southern Italy.

The exhibition, curated by Artan Shabani, former head of the National Gallery of Arts, will showcase various artworks by Albanian artists.“It is a long-term project I thought of starting from Calabria, under the atmosphere of the year dedicated to national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg and in respect of the memory of the Arberesh, of Albanian culture and history, both old and new,” Shabani told to local media.

Calabria is the city where, 550 years ago, the Arbëresh – Albanians who moved to Italy after the death of National hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg and establishment of Ottoman rule during the Middle Ages – settled to spread to Sicily, Basilica and other southern Italian provinces.

The exhibition focuses on the period of realistic socialism during the second half of the 1900s, as part  of the political platform of the communist regime ideology and then the nineties, with the end of planned art and the emergence of a new period in the Albanian art scene, with young artists who followed novel artistic expressions and methods, to contemporary art, whose language speaks of contemporary issues, similar to those of European artists, like social tensions, identity search, dialogue beyond bounded territories.

Some of featuring artists include Adrian Devolli, Lefter Shtembari, Skënder Kamberi, Nikolin Ivanaj, Foto Stamo, Guri Madhi, Ibrahim Kodra, Petro Kokushta, Anastas Kostandini Taso, Qamil Prizreni, Vladimir Kekezi, Emin Shaqja, Zini Veshi, Alkan Nallbani, Vangjush Vellahu, Agron Hoti, Arjan Shehaj, Vangjel Gjikondi, Eltjon Valle, etc.

The exhibition will remain open until the end of October, while by November it is expected to move to a museum in Veneto and other Italian provinces.